About once a month I get a request for help in publishing someone’s life story or their incredible new idea to help make the world a better place.

I take those reqests seriously because I’d never have published without the coaching and confidence of a few good friends. I even met a couple of lofty writers (guys with over 50 works in print), interestingly they not only took time with me but gave me exactly the same advice.

Want to know what they said? I’ll tell you at the end of this article . . .

I do have some advice for fledgling writers. It starts with this, “You better be an avid reader if you ever want to be a writer. But it gets more practical than that. I have some books to recomend that will help shape your hopes and dreams.

First read, On Writing, by Stephen King. It’s the best book on writing I’ve seen. It is an autobiography but filled with gems about the process. King will liberate you from most of your fears. Then grab How To Write A Book Proposal, by Michael Larsen. And finally read, Is There A Book Inside You? by Dan Poynter.

Read them in the order I’ve listed as thinking about a book proposal before you start strategizing a book makes huge sense (only if you really want to get it published).

Oh yeah, just one more thing–that advice from those two famous writers I mentioned. They each told me that if I didn’t re-write at least 15 times I would never sell a book.

Fifteen re-writes!!!! That bit of wisdom seemed monstrous until I read Stephen King. He made it simple for me and hopefully will do the same for you.

In fact, I often tell people I am not a “Christian.” Shocks most since they know I am a pastor. I do cop to being a Christ-follower. But never do I relate to the self-righteous club that spend so much time criticizing each other, let alone those outside the family of God.

All of which brings me to the point of this short treatise. We are called to love our enemies.

Such a call certainly means that we should love not just our enemies, but our allies as well.

I recently experienced a conversation with a new guy in our congregation. He felt “called” to inform me of all the mis-quoted Bible verses and the “New Age quotes” in Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Life.

A well-meaning person, he was loaded with what he called “great ammunition.” I told that the word “ammunition” in the same sentence with a devoted Christian leader left me a little cold. Also told him that he is spending far too much time on the internet.

He wanted to be sure our church was safe for him and his family so the conversation eventually came around to homosexuality, the acid test for Evangelicals of the 21^st Century.

When he finally agreed that a celibate gay person stood on the same ground as a celibate heterosexual I warned him to keep his opinion to himself for fear of inciting a couple of hundred new websites aimed at exposing him for the sin of “tolerance.” He got the point—love is supposed to be the defining mark of a Christ-follower. Take it away and we got nothing!

But love runs deeper than a theme-song for faith.

Think for a minute. Followers of Jesus Christ are the only people on the planet called to love their enemies. Liberals preach tolerance toward everyone but those who disagree with them. The new atheists preach hatred just short of genocide. Speaking of which, I recently hatred firsthand in Mongolia. After anti-Communist riots took five lives in Ulaanbaatar, a prominent Buddhist monk took to the TV to proclaim that Christians were the cause of the unrest and “…now is the time for us to rise up and rub them out!”

No other thought-system on the planet calls its followers to love their enemies. Few actually even call people to love their neighbors.

This is a pure Jesus play. And, you either do it or you don’t! The ball is in your court.

Every healthy congregation makes use of multiple leaders gathered around a common vision. However, the strongest of these leaders will have their own sense of direction from the Lord. If each individual vision can be woven together around the central vision then growth can become explosive. Vision fuels passion. Passion generates evangelism and growth.

Are You In The Way?
In fact, one way to tell if your wineskin is getting brittle is if people are struggling against you instead of alongside of you. You might ask yourself, “Have I have become the hole in the hourglass? Does all permission to minister have to come through me?” If the answers to those questions are affirmative, you are probably holding back some of the growth God is trying to send. God is creative (pun intended). He constantly works to raise up people who can see needs and then fill them. Our issues should not deal with whether or not they fit our program—God wants to expand our program. We should only question whether a new idea fits within the tent of our vision and values. If it does, we should endorse it and the leader who sponsors it.

Take the idea of small groups. We call ours “MiniChurch.” We originally built all our MiniChurches around a common format based upon a discussion of the weekend teaching. But, we had to stretch the tent. Our MiniChurch Ministry now includes “Power Teams” that study the same passage daily and meet for weekly discussion and prayer. We have “Inductive Bible Study MiniChurches.” We have “Gateways MiniChurches” for people in recovery from specific attacks from Satan. There are fill-in-the-blank study MiniChurches and so on. You get the picture. We began to grow exponentially when we chose to pull off the restriction of only one type of small group. Now just about 60 percent of our groups fit the original pattern, but our overall number of groups has grown by about 40 percent in the process. Though our total number of MiniChurches has continued to expand, much of the growth has been in the area of the newer groups.

The key to the growth in MiniChurch was a decision to relinquish control over the format. Had we stuck to the single format we would have continued to grow but not at the current rate.

Don’t Endorse Just Any Idea
Manufacturers learn that it is not smart for one company to create products that compete with one another for space on the retailer’s shelf (Think “New Coke” versus the original thing). When you do that all that happens is confusion and loss of market share. But, they do want to fit products to various needs as in the partnership between Coke and Diet Coke. Their wisdom applies to the church.

We would not endorse an idea for a large midweek service in our church because it would draw strength from MiniChurch in two ways. First, it would siphon off numbers and weaken our leadership team. Second (and more important), it would undercut the idea of small-group fellowship and personal support teams. We’ve built our entire ministry on the juxtaposition between my teaching and close up personal support in small groups. This is the picture painted by Luke in Acts 2:41-47. We would never allow anything to erode that very scriptural imprint upon our church.

Because of our underlying biblical values, we can easily hive off more MiniChurches. We can embrace new flavors of MiniChurch. But, we cannot endorse a ministry that would weaken MiniChurch. We continually stretch our tent, but we do not ignore the vision and values that build the tent.

Church As A Cluster of Movements
Could you conceive of your church as a cluster of movements? We think of ours in terms of MiniChurches, missions teams, sports teams, outreach groups, age-specific ministries, family services teams, etc. The structure is always flexing as new groups come to life and others die. Each of these areas functions as a movement within our church. They are pretty much self governing only coming together annually for a coordinated planning session. All we require is that they subscribe to our overall vision and values.

I know a church that grew because one man enlisted a bunch of helpers to restore an aging fire-truck and donate it to a Mexican village that had been tormented by fires. The pastor was wise enough to allow this unorthodox use of resources because it fit within the existing parameters of mission to Mexico, though only the man with the vision for the truck had ever participated in Mexico missions previous to the project. The fire-truck people grew into a mission team of their own. After they delivered the truck they continued to visit the village bringing food and clothing to some very poor people. They also brought the gospel.

One question that comes to mind is what about ‘doctrinal’ distinctives. How should you handle a group that has their own theological bent? We work pretty well with people who have their own theological issues. We simply ask them not to press their ideas on the rest of the congregation. If they are willing to work with us in this fashion, we can work together. If they begin to attack the central tenants of the church or to recruit heavily we will ask them to leave. Upon reaching this understanding, we’ve seldom had a problem. I think loyalty to Jesus is the central issue here.

A Movement Of Movements
The Hope Chapel Coalition of Churches is really a movement of movements. Our thinking about relative independence has allowed us to grow around the world. Freedom of “movement” has given us a greater harvest than we would have dreamed about had we tried to control growth and ministry patterns.

Hope Chapel Hermosa Beach retained its church planting vision after I moved to Hawaii. They continue to plant churches in and around the United States and do strong missions in Africa. They have become specialists in bringing life to dead or near dead churches. One man from Hermosa moved to New England to plant a church. As a result there are fourteen “Harvest Chapels” spread over a region previously thought impervious to the gospel.

We have planted congregations throughout Hawaii and Japan. Our daughter churches have spread their efforts into other parts of Asia. One man in our congregation recently began discipling a civil engineer in Pakistan who showed great promise as a personal evangelist. The result is 51 new “Grace Bible” churches in that Muslim nation in just over two years. Our daughter church Kobe Bible Fellowship now boasts a number of Bible Fellowship churches in western Japan.

One friend of mine, Linus Morris, got inspired by the book “Let Go Of The Ring.” As a result, he re-directed his existing ministry into a church planting movement. The result is more than 50 congregations spread throughout Europe and the United States under the name Christian Associates International. He invited me to speak at their annual leadership retreat as one of the “fathers” of the movement. We feel stronger having them as a sister movement to ours.

God Has More Ideas Than You Can Stand
My point here is that God has bigger and better ideas than we do. Each mind can contain only so much of his vision. If you or I insist that every idea must originate with us—or even fit our pattern, we will limit the growth of his kingdom. Loosen your grip, it could be fun.

For help with the concept of MiniChurch check our other website at www.straightstreet.com. Look for either the book “Friends: The Key to Reaching Generation X,” or the tape series”MiniChurch: Small Groups That Really Work.”

For me the answer to all the above questions got to be a resounding “Yes!” Not a very good situation for someone who really wants to see God’s kingdom go forward.

Remembering Home Base
I am old enough to remember when there were still very few “church growth books.” I am such a dinosaur that I was around before Tom Peters kicked off the explosion in business “How To” books with his impressive book, In Search of Excellence. I actually precede the 1980s and the revolution in self help books. This means that when I entered ministry back in 1968, and planted my first church in 1971, that I had very little help. Or did I?

What I did have was the Bible, a Strong’s Concordance, a Vines New Testament Dictionary and a couple of sets of commentaries. Today, you can find all that stuff and tons more in any good Bible Study software. I also had history books, biographies of great people and novels (to clear my head).

I remember once being missions trip to Mexico. I had o­ne of those special moments of extreme spiritual satisfaction. In that moment, I thought I could be happy living as a missionary if I had o­nly my family, my Bible and a guitar so I could worship to music. A little extreme, perhaps. But, my confidence was strong in the Lord and the power of his word to change lives.

Living at Home Base
For twelve years I pastored Hope Chapel in Hermosa Beach, California using o­nly the simple tools I’ve described above. The church grew from nothing to over 1600 people each week in attendance and we started 30 daughter churches. That congregation is even larger today under the fine ministry of Zac Nazarian who followed me.

My point is, that my ministry was rooted in a very simple system built around a philosophy that said, “Feed the sheep and the Lord will build his church.” This came from a teaching that I had heard from Chuck Smith about Jesus’ admonitions to Peter. I felt it was my job description to feed the flock. Jesus’ job description included building the church along with holding the universe together. That system worked. Then came Tom Peters . . .

Moving Away From Home Base
Someone introduced me to this very good book (if you skip the first five chapters) just before we started Hope Chapel in Kaneohe, Hawaii. Peters didn’t come o­n as a Christian, but all eight of his basic principles could be found in scripture and we had been living them out for years. We got so excited that we used his book in leadership training, asking our team to search out scripture for each of the principles he taught.

That event took me down a path of reading management and leadership books for nearly 20 years. These were both secular and spiritual, although I find that the spiritual o­nes are often knock-offs of the secular. Then came the church growth books. When Donald McGavran began the church growth movement, it was largely about evangelizing entire populations of people, much like the stuff Ed Silvoso touches o­n in his works. It was not about how to get your church a little larger than it is. Even those books were good, the churches they described were thriving, but I was losing something of my soul. I was copying everyone else and doing it so fast that no single idea ever took real root. I was moving from a spiritual foundation to something I don’t like very well.

Back to Basics
Recently, I’ve had the Lord impress me to lay off that kind of reading. Maybe for awhile, maybe for a long time. I do find the Lord is seldom a “black-and-white” thinker, so I don’t think he would mind if I snuck in a little Peter Drucker o­nce in awhile
.
I think the reason he is trying to get off my addiction to other people’s success is that he wants to get me back where he can give me a little of his own. I think God is trying to bring me back to basics so I can rediscover my heart-to-heart relationship with him. When you get down to it, that is the o­nly thing that will really make a ministry bear fruit that lasts. I used to brag about all the wonderful things God has done in our midst. Today, I too often hear myself touting our systems and how well they work. Truth is, they may have been given us by God, but they are yesterday’s manna. I’m hungry for something fresh.

This is changing my reading life as well as my prayer life. I still read history and o­nce in awhile I like a good detective novel (have you ever heard of an author named Rex Stout, or his hero—Nero Wolfe?). But, I’ve backed off the management stuff. I found I was confounding my staff with a new idea every week. As a team, we are reading The Measure of a Church, by Gene Getz. But, that is because he brings us back to the Bible as a standard for every activity.

I am reading books about prayer and worship along with my Bible for my devotional times. I even read some of the people whose theology gets a little strange. I do it because these are the o­nes who seem to concern themselves with a God who still acts in real-time. I often find myself weeping over statements they make or challenges they lay out. I want to get back to my first love. I want to be that young kid who really believed God can do anything. That will fire up my preaching and I expect the church to reflect my own walk with the Lord.

As for prayer, I’ve initiated two new things. Both of them are ideas I stole from other men. I journal my prayers because my mind wanders so easily. I got that idea from Bill Hybels in o­ne of those books I used to read. The other practice is that of laying o­n the floor, face down before God in the best humility I can muster. I do this for long periods of time and seem to hear his voice best in that situation (that idea I stole from a guy named David. You can read about him in First and Second Samuel.

A Basic Assignment
The Lord recently re-communicated to me that my first and most basic assignment is to feed his sheep. I feel a little like Peter when Jesus asked if he loved him and then told him to tend his lambs and feed his sheep. Jesus asked, “Peter, do you love me more than these?” Was he talking about the fish they had just caught? Did he mean the other disciples? Was he asking about the boats, nets and all the other gear that Peter must have possessed? Whatever he was asking Peter, I hear Jesus asking me if I love him more than all the ministry he gave me, all the systems we’ve built, all my friends, and everything I possess. I am not sure if I can (yet) give him the answer he deserves—I’m working o­n it with a little fear in my heart. >

But, he has made it clear that feeding the flock is my assignment and I am determined to do the best job of it that I can. In this day of gross commercialization, of up-to-the-minute technology and of extremely busy lives; I am convinced that the o­nly real answer is for pastors to declare the word in plain simple language, being sure to apply what they teach to the listeners. Not to skip the hard parts for the fun stuff. For them to be authentic with their fears, hurts and hopes as well as their dreams. In other words to get back to the Bible and how it is scraping our own lives at the moment as we teach it to others.

Jesus answers prayer so we should preach a message of hope and dreams fulfilled. We should also remember the word “hell” is used quite a few times and that there are consequences for every behavior. There are still two paths, o­ne narrow and o­ne quite broad. It is our job to make sure people find the narrow path that leads to a life both abundant and eternal.

The Bummer
The heading to this paragraph will show you that I am an eternal victim of the 1970s. I still use some of the terminology: “That’s his trip.” “Way cool!” I could go o­n, but you get the picture. The real problem is that I saw a church revolution in the 70s. There was revival and that revival birthed many of today’s graying mega-churches. It was an exciting time, but also a time of upheaval in the church. God was bringing us back to basics—it was a great time to be young. Now I am approaching my fifty-eighth birthday and God seems to be stripping me all over again. The “bummer” is that sometimes I feel too old for this stuff. I just want to live in my comfort zone. But, I also sense excitement. I feel like the Lord is taking us someplace I’ve never been before. I’m a little frightened of it, but I can smell the adventure. Knowing him, it can o­nly be someplace good.

Surprisingly, it is the younger people who talk about faith. Even more surprising was the fact that college graduates spend more time talking about faith than do people who are not as well educated. Not so surprising is the fact that people in larger churches (over 100 in attendance) performed better in this category.

Teaching Tithing
Well that brings a question: “What are you teaching your people?” Every year, I do a series on tithing. Sometimes, I preach on it for four weeks. We include testimonies from people who God has blessed after they became tithers. We do this during the tithing messages and also sprinkle them throughout the year. We used to do them on video, but found live testimonies touch hearts better than the same words run through a projector.

The people do not resent this teaching. They look forward to it. Oh sure, I’ve had a few people walk out when I announced that I was speaking on tithing. But, who cares. They are robbers of God, according to Malachi. I would rather they found another church, anyway.

The tithers never tire of hearing the message that has so blessed their lives. They will support you when you teach on it. I once mailed the 200 top givers in our church and asked them to pray for me during the weeks I taught the series. I never told them how I chose their names, but they were certainly pleased to know that I considered them important to my prayer team at this time.

We recently went through the book, “Purpose Driven Life” in a modified “Forty Days of Purpose” campaign. When we hit discipleship, I hit on tithing—a lot harder than the book did. Because the people are used to the message, they applauded the teaching. My point is, you get what you preach.

Talking About God
Last year, I noticed that we were falling behind in evangelism. So, this year I scheduled three teaching series on how to do it. The best was the simplest. We discussed “prayer, care, share.” This came out of Jim Montgomery’s book, “A Million Lighthouses to Go.” The teaching got the people motivated to pray for people. To show them love. And finally, to talk about God whenever they got the chance. It took the pressure off them to “lead someone to Christ.”

I think our teaching about evangelism should lead people to “gossip about God.” In other words, bring answered prayer into normal conversations. End conversations with a simple “God bless you.” Tell people that you will pray for them when they tell you their problems. I even teach people to 1. Tell their friends that they are Christians and that they pray every morning, evening, etc. 2. Ask permission from that friend to pray for their problem during their daily prayer time. This is easy to do. It puts the burden on God to answer and it places the non-Christian’s attention on God. Will he deliver or not. This kind of behavior often brings people into church where they surrender their lives to Jesus.

You Get What You Teach
My point here is that you get what you teach. If you discuss the miserable state of the world in your messages, you will get miserable and worrisome people. If you only talk about apologetics you will have a church full of well educated arguers. If you teach evangelism in its simplest form you will pastor a bunch of people who are not afraid to share their faith. If you teach tithing and generosity as a norm, you will soon find the people joyously giving to the Lord.

Teach Them Young
We run our high school ministry as a church service (Sunday evenings at 7 P.M.). The pastor teaches the same message as I do in the other services. The result is that we are teaching these principles to the future adults of our church while they are young. We see their offerings and their efforts at evangelism as the future lifeblood of our church.

Teach them young. Many churches only entertain youth. It is your responsibility to disciple them while you can.

Be A Victor, Not A Victim
We don’t have to be victims of surveys. It is too easy to get depressed over the latest Barna data. Instead of letting it get you down, let it get you going. Realize that you are the greatest counselor your people have. Your pulpit is your place of authority to change their lives in a positive manner. What you do in preaching is more important than anything else that goes on in your church. Do it with passion and a positive attitude and you will see things going the way God intended. Keep the faith, stand firm and see the deliverance of the Lord.

The New Church
This particular church is named Mana’olana which translates to “hope.” It was born in a bar. The Pipeline Café is a dance club reputed to flow with ecstasy on weekend evenings. Now on Sunday mornings it overflows with the life of the Holy Spirit.

Many of the regular patrons came to the first service. Most were favorably impressed. The crowd numbered 157 up from a core team of about 45 people. Several people accepted Christ and several others rededicated their lives to the Lord. The radio ads (aired on three secular stations) were so funny that listeners are phoning in requests to hear them played again. These guys even ran ads in the lonely hearts column of a local paper, “Looking for love, call Mana’olana at 123-4567.” Not their exact copy, but you get the picture–This ain’t your father’s Oldsmobile. The leaders even got chewed out by an angry saint who said they were demeaning the gospel by their choice of meeting places and the rock music. All the pieces are in place for a successful penetration of the culture they are trying to reach.

The Thrill it Brings
Today I’m sitting back like some happy godfather watching all of this unfold. To me the true fruit of any tree is another tree (or an orchard full of them). The true fruit of the church I pastor is the reality of another church that effectively reaches it’s community. In fact, the true fruit of my life as pastor is found in placing another disciple into successful ministry. Pushing pain aside, this week I am exulting in the thrill of multiplication. I do it every time we, or one of our daughter churches, multiplies.

At A Total Loss
Everything came to a head in April. The crisis began on a Sunday evening and lasted until Tuesday afternoon. Five “problems” kept recycling through my brain like a television set that would only play five commercials over and over. I didn’t sleep for two nights and feared I was losing my mind. It turned out to be the best experience of my life.

Because of the crisis, and after the doctor put me on medication to stop the overflow of adrenelin. When I calmed down, I found myself re-examining my confidence in God. I found that I had very little. The Bible says “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he…” (Proverbs 27:3 KJV). A lot of reflection brought me to the conclusion that I had fillled my mind with too much worldly knowledge and not enough of God’s thoughts. An avid reader, I often read three books at a time and sometimes finish four or five in a week. Too many of what I had been reading focused on subjects like church growth, leadership or business. Most were written as “tips and techniques.” Though they often gave lip-service to God’s power. But by not overtly teaching of his power, their effect was tantamount to denying it.

Over the years, my reading affected my teaching in church without me even noticing it. I would “spiritualize” or generalize long passages of scripture without looking for specific words of truth and direction. Take Luke 2:18-19 for instance. To me that simply meant that Jesus came to do good things and bring salvation. Now, I see several specific mission statements in that passage. Each requires heaven’s interaction or nothing will happen.

A Worthy Vow
In the midst of my pain, I made a vow: I would read no books on church growth, leadership or business for one year. I’ve kept the vow and I’ve kept on reading. I read Waking the Dead by John Eldridge five times in thirteen months. I have gone through over eighty books dealing with the Holy Spirit, prayer, warfare against demonic powers, etc. Some were downright silly. Most bore a message I deeply needed.

A born cynic, I used to doubt the sanity or wisdom of some of the authors on the list which I have enclosed. I now humbly embrace them as brothers who have simply walked a different road than I have. I want to learn from them, even if I will probably never emulate their style or vocabulary. I am undergoing a spiritual awakening that, in turn, is awakening our church to signs and wonders.

A New Paradigm
Whatever you put into your mind is what will guide your life. Mine has completely changed. I’ve rediscovered Jesus as the builder of the church. My staff are thrilled that I went through the crisis because I no longer bring “a great new idea a week” into staff meeting. We have grown much more focused and I am a much gentler leader. We now pray together for up to two hours before doing the other stuff you usually associate with a staff meeting. We use our own problems and sicknesses as a prayer-lab for what we want to bring to the general congregation. We try to “live” the scriptures and view every new experience as an experiment–it is OK to make mistakes while we learn to walk in the power and leadership of the Spirit. Our congregation is growing numerically and the offerings are very healthy–it seems that our members were patiently waiting for their pastor to catch up to them in spiritual growth for a long time. Many possess wonderful spiritual gifts that they suppressed for years in deference to the general climate and paradigm of the church. They were holding back out of submission to me. These spiritual gifts are currently beginning to show up in strong and surprising ways.

We often engage in prolonged prayer (ten minutes) in small circles during our weekend services. Our people are taking prayer into their law offices, hospitals, shops and to the streets. People are healed, businesses experience unexpected success, demons have been driven out of afflicted people, and our community is changing in response to very specific “target-prayers.”

Much of what is happening is the result of a paradigm shift. I’ve stopped thinking as a “Christian Humanist” and begun thinking as a Christian. Our church is rediscovering it’s spiritual foundation and the power of the Spirit because the pastor is searching out that foundation and the power that accompanies it. I feel much like I did when I was about 26 years old and the Jesus Movement was breaking out all around me–there was power, it was working, I didn’t fully understand it but I embraced it.

The Wave Has Yet To Break
We have a long way to go. We are still paddling, the swell is still building, the wave won’t break for awhile longer. But, we can already feel the force of the wave. I feel humbled and excited all at once. God shows himself stronger every week. I feel smaller, but more loved every day. His kindness is overflowing and we don’t quite know what to do about it. But we will learn…

I’ve enclosed a reading list on “signs and wonders” at the end of this article. These are the best twenty-five percent of the books I’ve read during the past year. The first book on the list, I’ve read five times, given away dozens of copies and read it in concert with my staff. The last is a daily devotional written during the 1940s that eerily foreshadows the stuff the more radical authors on the list put out (That book was written by C.S. Lewis, just in case all of you who fear or dislike the Peter Wagners or Benny Hinns of this world are interested).

I hope the list is beneficial. Moreso, I hope those of you that are seeking the fame of “success” will learn to differentiate between a marketing program and a move of the Spirit. Once you’ve tasted the latter, you will never feel quite comfortable with the former.

A Reading List
Here is my list:
Waking The Dead by John Eldridge
Anointed For Business by Ed Silvoso
Restoring Your Shield of Faith by Chuck D. Pierce & Robert Heidler
Speaking Hammer by Evelyn Thompson & Mari Hanes (foursquare.org/resources)
Christianity With Power by Charles Kraft
Confronting Powerless Christianity by Charles Kraft
Seven Things They Didn’t Teach Me In Seminary by Peter Wagner
John Wimber: The Way It Was by Carol Wimber
Power Healing by John Wimber
Power Evangelism by John Wimber
Good Morning Holy Spirit by Benny Hinn
The Quest For The Radical Middle: A History Of The Vineyard by Bill Jackson
Hearing God by Dallas Willard
Out Of Africa by Peter Wagner & Joseph Thompson
Overcoming Unbelief by Neil Anderson
Warfare Prayer by Peter Wagner
A Year With C.S. Lewis by C. S. Lewis

Recently, I spoke in a church in Nancy, France. It was a Sunday morning worship celebration. It was also the finale to three days of seminars on how to operate MiniChurches or cell groups in local churches. Many in the audience were pastors from France, Germany and even The Ivory Coast. I closed the message with a simple prayer for the congregation—all of whom were very responsive to my words about life in an effective church.

After that prayer, the Holy Spirit seemed to nudge me to pray with anyone in the audience who wanted to receive Christ. I did and four people responded. I was left in deep shock. My very wrong assumption had been that everyone present was a born-again Christian. The second assumption was equally misleading: that no one would get saved after a message about the power of God at work among committed Christians. I underestimated the power of the scriptures to bring life—all the scriptures.

Here are three questions you should ask yourself with regard to altar calls:

Do you really know the hearts of your audience?
My very wrong assumption was that everyone was a believer. You may see the same faces week after week. Yet, you don’t know if they really know the Lord. You will never know unless you ask every person. The only way to do that is to ask them when you have them together in one place at a time. I recently watched a five-year attender who volunteers in Children’s Church pray to receive Christ. Afterwards, his life radically changed so this was no prayer for reassurance—it was the real deal. He may have missed heaven if I had not lead him in that prayer.

Is any scripture “inappropriate” for salvation?
One of our best leaders visited church for the first time on a weekend when I taught about tithing. His wife prayed for nine months to get him there. She nearly fainted when I announced the scripture and subject for the morning. She was confident her husband would be turned off to the gospel forever. The exact opposite happened. He accepted Christ through a ninety-second presentation and prayer at the close of service. The following Tuesday he asked me to lunch to discuss his financial problems. They were huge—he could have even been jailed because of a business partner’s financial misdeeds. We prayed. He claimed the promises that he had heard in scripture the week before. He also began tithing the following weekend. God rescued him from the trouble and he now owns his own company. Would all that have happened if we didn’t pray with people to receive Christ after tithing sermons?

What will happen when no one gets confronted with the gospel?
If you reduce church to a format that seems completely comfortable to an un-churched individual, you will become salt without savor. If you don’t make opportunity for people to repent, where will they go to find life? If you don’t pray with your folks to receive the Lord, who will model that prayer and challenge so your members integrate it into their own faith-sharing experiences. As a pastor, you are a role model. Your words are symbols carrying hidden freight and bearing fruit beyond your direct intention. Avoiding those symbols is every bit as powerful as expressing them. Prayers uttered beat those left unspoken any day.

A Problem
One piece of information that he picked up gave him insight to why the Kingdom of God has ceased to grow in that city. The place was once alive with new churches and explosive evangelism. Now church growth is static, though the place is famous for hosting some of the larger churches in the United States.

The Source Of The Problem
What did my friend discover? He found that there are six “mega-churches” in the metropolitan area and scores of churches numbering about 100 in attendance. The big churches don’t want to plant churches because they are in competition with each other for the title of “biggest.” The smaller churches won’t plant because they are either struggling to stay alive or hoping to make it to mega-church status. All this in light of Peter Wagner’s famous comment that “Church planting is the best tool for evangelism under the Sun.”

Somehow the American Church Growth Movement moved away from its original intentions which were to evangelize the world by multiplying the church. Today, it seems to represent very human desires for pastoral significance through size. We find ourselves building bigger churches than ever before while we fall behind the task of evangelism. Congregational size, land and buildings, large budgets and the number of staff members are all merit badges when measuring the effectiveness of a church. We’ve even made excellence in presentation more important than content or a hunger for the spirit. Unfortunately the war is being lost on our watch.

A Biblical Solution
Well, my plan is not to write a negative article defaming well-intentioned pastors and leaders. I just want to pull us back to a biblical perspective toward ministry. Here are three passages of scripture we would do well to remember. They may help motivate us to go ahead and multiply our congregation by planting a new church. They may help us analyze our strategies and the daily decisions that we make.

Contentment
Paul wrote to Timothy, “Yet true religion with contentment is great wealth” (1 Timothy 6:6 NLT). If you are struggling with the size of your church you may be out of order. Why not try thanking God for what he gave you, instead? A thankful heart reflects contentment and God can work wonders with you in such a state. Some of our greatest breakthroughs have come only after we quit complaining about our situation and began praising God for what he gave us. This is true in my personal life as well as in my role as a church leader.

Consistency
I don’t know about you, but I can get confused when I read all the management literature that is available to me. This is true of both the Christian and the secular stuff. I once discovered that I was reading so much, so fast, that I was forgetting one article as I read the next one. Sometimes I get burned out from reading so much. At other times I actually find myself being discouraged by the books and magazines which aim to edify me. Comparing my measly efforts with the great successes of the author can through me into a mild state of depression.

The answer to this dilemma is to remember our calling. Again, Paul to Timothy: “Preach the word of God. Be persistent, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching” (2 Timothy 4:2 NLT). We are called to preach the word of God. This means stick to the Bible. You do it whether people want to hear it or not. Persist with correction, encouragement and solid teaching. Such advice may not build a crowd overnight. But, over time, it will endow you with leaders who have godly character. These are the people who will want to help you multiply your congregation. If you’ve taught them well, they will also be capable of pulling off the task. The best way to build preachers is simply to clone yourself by setting an example for your disciples.

Caution
Don’t fall prey to comparing yourself to others. Equally important, while you can learn from others don’t copy them. Search God for his power in your own life. Get to know him better than you do right now. Look for what it is that he built into your life that makes you unique and different from every other leader you know. Ask him how you can begin to build upon your strengths and to send help in areas where he (purposely) made you weak. Above all be yourself.

Paul had a piece of wisdom for Timothy about this as well. He described the leadership crisis in the church in the last days, “They will act as if they are religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. You must stay away from people like that” (2 Timothy 3:5 NLT). Now you have no way of judging another man’s heart and you should not try to do so. But, you can sort out some positive advice from this scripture. That is learn to embrace “the power that could make them (you) godly.” Let your ministry become an expression of the Spirit’s power. My prayer of late is “God, let your glory fall on our house.” I want people to feel the weight of the Holy Spirit in our worship, in my teaching, and in our home groups.

So What About Planting Churches?
What’s all this have to do with planting more churches to reach the harvest? The answer is simple. The church is a living organism. As such, it is natural for it to reproduce itself if it is healthy and mature. An unhealthy church won’t want to reproduce. An immature one isn’t yet ready. Stick with Paul and his instructions to Timothy and you (and your congregation) will grow in both areas.

He wrote me to ask which leadership resources I use when discipling rising leaders. That got me to thinking… Trouble is I don’t use most popular resources. In fact, I seldom read a really ‘hot’ book. If it’s still popular in a year or two I know it is worth my time and not a passing fad.

However, I do read a lot. Mostly history and biography. I usually have three books going at a time. With my devotions I’ll read a book on some aspect of church history like Francis McNutt’s book “The Healing Reawakening” (formerly “The Nearly Perfect Crime). Before falling asleep I’ll read history or biography—I went through early American history for a couple of years and have been reading about World War II for the past three years. If I’m not reading history, I get into detective novels and spy stories (some non-fiction here).

Those That have Withstood The Ravages Of Time
I find that many “leadership” books are kind of a rehash of the “self-help” pop psychology stuff that was so popular in the 1990s. Many books on mentoring are much the same. I like those authors that have withstood the ravages of time: Roland Allen, Peter Drucker and Tom Peters are great examples. Another author I read incessantly is Dr. Luke—his biography of Jesus and his other work on the lives of the early church planters are daily fare for me. I read Luke and Acts by the calendar. Today is the third of the month, so I read chapter three in both books. I figure I should keep my head in the root source of what I am trying to do.

We stand on the shoulders of those who’ve gone before. I believe the best leaders are those who rose to face whatever challenge tried to crush them. John Adams, George Washington, George Patton, Dwight Eisenhower and those un-named believers who fled Jerusalem preaching about Jesus all have something to teach me. I want to integrate their life-lessons into my own practice. And I hope to pass those lessons on to “faithful men who are able to teach others also…”

Relationship
Any small group is all about relationships. Most learning in the group comes in the form of give and take among the members. So why not train leaders the same way?

I’ve tried to train small group leaders in classes without much success–unless the class took the form of extensive small group experience. This is Jesus’ model with the twelve and it is still the best thing going for us today. We learn by doing, not by memorizing.

Succession
I believe in succession management. During performance reviews, I ask each staff member to name the person who should replace them if they die in an airplane accident. The very question expands our vision toward our friends and those we shepherd.

We start most of our small groups by succession. That is the leader replaces himself with an apprentice or disciple then takes one to three others out to start a new group.
Our groups vary in size so the number who leave to “hive off” a new group varies accordingly.(We have MiniChurches of a dozen or so. We also have a half-dozen different names for groups of three or four who meet to pray, share scripture and confess sins, etc.).

As you can see, the concept of succession is very natural and it is that which Jesus modeled for his disciples. It is the same prinicple Paul used whenever he left one of his fledgling congregations to preach in another city.

Apprenticeship
I’ve always trained leaders from within any group I work with. I always ask myself, “Who should replace me?” Then I begin handing off responsibility to that person. I ask them to lead whenever I am absent. Thru them I look after the other members. I send them in to handle a messy situation or call on them to go pray with someone in need.

I try to do this in a very relaxed manner. I seldom formally ‘announce’ that I am training a person or taking them as my apprentice. I just start treating them differently. This leaves me the option of backing out without hurt feelings if the person doesn’t work out. By the time I ‘announce’ the relationship, I am halfway out the door in my mind.

It’s Just Not That Hard
Leadership training is not as difficult as we often make it. I’ve helped start over 300 churches during my lifetime. Most of those pastors came up in the way I’ve just described. They were faithful at little things. Then someone recognized that they had a few followers and began apprenticing them, or discipling them toward leadership.

As you travel the world you meet lots of different people and just about as many styles of ministry. One thing I’ve noticed is that relational leadership development is a common thread that runs through every church planting “movement.” Those who train relationally multiply naturally.

These people described their growing up years as a contest between themselves and various church members and meetings for their parent’s time. As I listened to this description of failed ministry, I was reminded of Monique Osslear’s article ‘How Not To Be Jealous Of God…” (Posted at cpforum.net on August 15, 2002). It is wonderful that Monique and her husband are communicating about these issues. But, I wonder how many pastor’s families do not?

If we sacrifice our families to the ministry, we’ve lost the only earthly possession we could have taken to heaven. Tragically, some people have built a rationale for such a wretched swap. The reason we were discussing this at our leader’s meeting is that we were studying a book which was willing to trade the daddy-time needs of one’s own family for the supposed higher good of a host of souls in God’s kingdom. The book is a Christian bestseller, with more than 500,000 copies in print. Otherwise an excellent volume on leadership, it failed miserably in its esteem for a pastor’s family. God doesn’t require you to sacrifice your family to the ministry. Your elders may ask for such a trade. Needy people will often call for it. Your own inability to say “No,” or to manage your time may even dictate it. But, God is holding out for you to love your wife and kids before you ever get around to “doing the ministry.”

A BIBLICAL PRIORITY LIST
We all quote Ephesians, chapter five, at weddings. But, how many of us read those wonderfully romantic words in context with the verses that follow them. When you do, you will realize that God laid down a priority list for your family (and the families of your congregation).

The longer instruction starts with worship which involves surrender to God (Ephesians 5:18-20). Next on the list is mutual submission (v. 21). As members of Christ’s body, you submit to one another in love. This admonition applies to each member of your family—no fair demanding submission of a wife as a one-sided proposition. Everyone’s needs should be met if this is working properly. Submission between spouses is next on the list: A woman lives this by entrusting herself to her husband as a leader she will follow. Her walk with her husband is to mimic her walk with Christ (v. 22-24). The husband submits to his wife’s needs by laying down his life for her, even as Jesus did (v. 25-33). I find it interesting that husbands rate nine verses of instruction alongside of just three that were set aside for wives). We all know that any marriage that follows these directions has a good chance of success. But, you are asking, “What has that to do with the pressures on a pastor’s home?” Well, a pastor who submits to the needs of his wife will be looking for a justification to prioritize his time around his family before he gives it all to the ministry.

Looking deeper into the passage provides just such a priority structure. The instructions to husbands and wives immediately precede those for children and parents (Ephesians 6:1-4). Following family issues comes advice for the marketplace if you see slaves and masters in a parallel light to the relations between employees and employers (v. 5-9). The next few lines bring us to the height of spiritual influence as Paul lays out God’s armor, then invites us into the battle of prayer in the spirit for the extension of ministry (v. 10-19).

A FRAMEWORK FOR YOUR PRIORITIES
Did you notice the order of relationships in these two chapters? 1. Worship. 2. Mutual submission in the body. 3. Surrenders between husband and wife. 4. Parent-child relationships. 5. A plan for employers and employees. 6. A setup for extending the ministry. If you take it as a priority structure, you only get to approach items five and six after tending to the first four.

I’m not calling for perfection here. Just an honest attempt to rearrange your schedule and the focus of your attention. We could simplify the list: God first, family second, an honest day’s work third followed by fruitfulness in ministry.

Do things any other way and you are doomed in some area of your life. I know guys who put their family so far forward that they have little time to do the work of ministry—wrong stance. It will cost them respect and eventually their job. Others put the ministry fare in front of their family. They will lose their kids to the world. Some get everything else right, but overlook a personal worship life—their lives are dry and fruitless.

SEVEN-DAY TEMPLATE
What about you? How well are you managing your priorities? Are they in balance? Where would an adjustment help you become more effective? You could begin to restructure your life by building a seven-day template of the current use of your time. No two days will be alike, every week will probably look a lot like every other week. Using Paul’s Ephesian priority list, adjust your seven-day schedule until it falls into a workable balance. Take a quick look at Psalm 127 just before you do.

Part of our work together involved “Task Teams” where we met in groups of three, then twelve to scout out primary concerns involving our near future. The fun began when someone introduced the concept of ‘pocket’ churches–groups that meet in homes or in the marketplace and led by ‘ordinary’ Christians.

What Is “Ecclesia?”
One guy struggled to get his arms around the idea. Especially when presented with the idea that this might be the only church these people would know. You get it–a church that meets on Thursday in a law office, or a group of prostitutes meeting on Sunday afternoon in a park.

He challenged me with the question, “What is ‘ecclesia?’” He wanted my most basic definition of ‘church.’ For me, it is two or three gathered in Jesus’ name (see the article by Corey Grinder–A Building, A Bible and a Bulletin). Once I said that, he went off. I thought he was going to explode.

This self-confessed ‘traditional’ pastor went nuts over the church-planting possibilities wrapped up in that simplest of definitions.

My new friend pastors a large and thriving church. They started 360 cell groups using “Purpose Driven Life.” They settled out with 150. His elders just asked him to cancel his midweek service in favor of the small groups. His congregation launched four nearly simultaneous church plants in 2004 (at a tremendous cost in people, leadership and dollars. He is dedicated to multiplying the church, but a little overwhelmed (both positively and negatively) by last year’s experiences. ‘Pocket’ churches solve problems and open doors he never imagined.

Opportunities All Around You
Pocket churches are not an end-all solution to church planting. We still need to hive off large numbers of people into large congregations. We still need to send missionaries to unchurched cities in hopes of planting large base congregations that can multiply others. But, there is a definite roll for small congregations pastored by bi-vocational (or volunteer) Christians.

Pocket churches allow you to take the gospel to those who would not ever attend a church. They make an issue out of answered prayer if they consistently offer prayer for the needs of the unchurched around them. They develop potential pastors for larger service. They can help you learn to plant churches without expending large dollars or suffering a large loss of people/leaders.

How Do I Start?
You start by floating the idea. Teach your people that a small church is as valid as a big church. That two or three meeting in Jesus’ name is the basic unit. That people don’t need to darken your door to have a ‘valid’ church experience.

Teach your people the evangelistic value of penetrating the darkness with light. Teach them to be the church on Monday, to function as a missionary force rather than a mission field. Teach them to go into all the world and preach the gospel, casting out demons and healing the sick as they go. In other words, teach them to do what Jesus intended when he sent out the twelve and the 72.

A Pretty Good Model
I have a friend in Sri Lanka. He is so effective a church planter that the radical Buddhists who control the culture are trying to kill him. He lives in a government-sponsored protection program, living in seven different locations in just six months. He has launched over 2,000 churches from a single congregation of 400 people in Columbo. It took just 22 years.

Most of his church planters remain in his congregation. They attend church on Sunday morning then launch into an urban neighborhood or country village in the afternoon or evening where they engage in church planting. Some pastor two churches at once, one in the afternoon and another on Sunday evening. None are paid. Most are highly paid professionals–the guy I met owns the BMW distributorship for the nation. He has planted five churches and is soon on his way to start number six after raising a disciple at church number four (he always works in two churches at a time).

Folks this is not brain surgery. Most of the church planters ‘plan’ their sermon while listening to their own pastor on Sunday morning. These are busy people who must cut corners. They simply remain dedicated to the opportunities and challenges of discipling a nation for Christ. None does much more than would be expected of a Bible-study leader or teacher of an adult Sunday School class in the United States. All that they do can work in your community. All you need is vision and a proper understanding of “What is ecclesia?”

So What’s The Difference Between A “Pocket Church” And A Bible Study?
A Bible study is usually attached to a church. The pastor is the guy with the microphone on Sunday. A pocket church is self-encapsulated. There is no one with a microphone.

A Bible study usually does not recieve an offering. A pocket church does. That distinction all by itself defines the pocket church as something ‘real’ and not an extension of something else. By the way, pocket churches tend to have money problems–they struggle to find enough vision to know how to spend the stuff.

Bible studies tend to center on the people attending. Pocket churches do the same, but they also intentionally multiply themselves. One group I know sends out a minimum of five people as soon as they hit 35. The goal of a Bible study is to disciple it’s members. The purpose of pocket churches is to disciple nations.

What’s The Difference Between A Pocket Church And A House Church?
House churches are pocket churches. The reason for the differentiation is that it is hard to hold a house church in a park, at the beach or in a hospital conference room.

So What Should We Do?
We should do all of the above. We need more Bible studies, especially as training grounds for other things. We need to hive off members to start large congregations. We need to permeate our community (and the world at large) with pocket churches pastored by pocket missionaries. You could do this in your own backyard, in a neighborhood across town or in France with someone who moved there on business. It all comes down to your understanding of ecclesia.

But, when we short-cut our devotional life in favor of more ‘pressing’ needs we tend to allow our use of time to descend into chaos. This happens in at least three ways.

Just Too Busy!
I recently sampled about 50 people about their time demands. The questions were: 1. How many of you are being asked to deliver more than you have in terms of time and energy? 2. How many feel that your life is in balance and what you need to deliver is what you have? 3. How many feel that your life has a current surplus of time and energy?

You could pretty well guess the outcome. All but three people confessed to being overdriven. Life is asking more of them than they can possibly deliver. Two people said their lives were in balance. Two others actually said they have a surplus of time (don’t you envy those two?).

I look to God for miracles in the “Just Too Busy” category. When I pray, I ask for supernatural intervention in my business.

I am currently remodeling a townhome, prepping my house for sale and moving into the townhome–all at the same time. Did I mention that I took three trips to the mainland during the process? While all of that was going on, I needed to prep for our annual “Leadership Advantage” conference. One morning as I was drinking coffee and reflecting on the word, the Holy Spirit simply dumped the notes for my two sessions into my lap. I furiously penned them into my journal, writing as fast as I could. Later, I calmly copied them into PowerPoint and was up and running–both sessions were touchdowns!

On the moving front, I’ve felt “one day behind” throughout the project. Mostly, because I elected to be my own carpenter for the joy of woodworking. Whenever I got in a time-warp, I prayed for help and someone would volunteer. In fact, I am praying for help tomorrow and won’t express my need aloud just for the fun of watching God answer the prayer.

So, in the “Just Too Busy” department, I have come to expect a series of miracles at just the right time. They all stem from my time spent alone with the Lord.

Cloudy Priorities
Did you ever feel like every item on your to do list is an A-priority task? I get that way quite often. I simply cannot sort out priorities when I get overloaded. My devotional life often offers a solution to this problem.

God simply shows me what to do first, what to put off and what to leave in a pile on my desk to incubate until it dies from inattention.

Again, this is usually a work of the Spirit. He will show me a hidden reason for downpegging an item or show me why something deserves immediate attention. I even find him giving me insight into “sequencing” tasks so I make better use of my time on any given day. I want to be clear here. I am not saying that in quiet moments I gain insight into these things. I am talking about the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking clear direction into my heart.

Our Spiritual Adversary
I spoke with a friend whose wife suffers from migraines. She has had prayer several times from various members and groups in our church. She is understandably bummed out because the migraines are still with her.

But, the conclusions she has embraced are all wrong. She assumes that there is some secret sin in her life (one of which she is unaware) or that she lacks faith. Her greatest fear is that she is dragging down the faith of others by not being healed. Wow, is that ever a case of Satan getting his licks in twice–first with the migraine and then by heaping on guilt.

We are counseling her on two additional points. First, Jesus once said that demonic deliverance required much prayer and fasting. If deliverance requires fasting and prayer, could healing also demand that of us? Such thinking would allow for her to continue recieving prayer and engaging in fasting along the way. The second spiritual principle is that of spiritual warfare. The devil does prowl about looking for lunch. We all too often ask “Why does God allow this?” when we should be meeting our adversary head on. We should stop blaming God for Satan’s tricks.

Again, my prayer life comes to mind. It is during those moments after reading the Bible when I fall off into reflective prayer or prayer in my spiritual language that the haze clears. Those are the times when I realize that some consternation is actually a spiritual attack.

I often just begin praising God that my behavior is upsetting the devil enough to warrant an attack. That time of praise is often enough to cause Satan to flee.

“Submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you” is pretty good advice. But, I am only able to do that when I am spending time alone with God. While caught in the middle of the battle, I can’t see the forest with all those pesky trees blocking my view.

The Solution To Busyness And Frustration
Rather than skip my time with the Lord. I’ve found that more time with him is usually the solution to busyness. The time crunching kind, the poor priority type and the Satanic attack. The answer to all is supernatural and comes from being intimate with the Lord of all creation.

Avoiding Let-Downs

If pastoral ministry offers too many let-downs, you might need to check the expectations you put on your ministry ventures. If you, as quarterback, expect to pass for 50 yards every time you get the football you will mostly live in disappointment. But if you run or pass consistently for short distances you position yourself to throw the occasional long ball successfully. Teams with good short yardage games win championships.

How does this translate to ministry? The comparison is obvious, do a lot of little things well and you get ahead. Keep looking for the big “breakthrough” and you will fail to build a winning system of ministry.

Two Important Questions

Last Saturday we held our monthly breakfast for people who are new to the church. I asked everyone I met two questions, “How long have you been coming?” and “How did you find us?” When I ask the first question I am hoping the answer is “Just a few weeks,” or “Just since last weekend.” The second question, however, is the really important one. I want to know if our outreach efforts are having an effect.

On Saturday, I was rewarded by the following answers to the second question:

- “I came because I saw a Hope Chapel bumper sticker on my friend’s car. I asked him about it and he invited me to church.”

- Another said, “My friend invited me to the luau last month.”

- Four people had listened to our radio broadcast. Two Navy wives found us on the internet—neither of their husbands have visited the church. But both now download our weekend teaching from the net each week while living aboard ship. The message gives them one more thing to share while living apart.

- One guy came because he noticed people with Hope Chapel bumper stickers driving politely in rush-hour traffic. The bumper stickers led him to our website.

Of course most came because a friend had invited them directly to attend our weekend services. But we also support those efforts by giving each member two small “invitation cards” to give away each month. My point is that we find people coming in the door due to a host of outreach efforts. No single attempt will ever fill our church.

Short Yardage Gains

This is kind of a new revelation for us. Our staff had fallen into the trap of looking for the next big deal that would add a host of people to our congregation. Living in constant disappointment got old. One day we awoke to the fact that our smaller attempts at outreach consistently delivered positive results. Meanwhile the big events produced little direct effects. We’ve come to conclude that we need to pay more attention to consistent production while viewing the larger attempts as opportunities to familiarize ourselves with the community. We won’t give up on the larger outreaches. But we will do fewer of them while focusing more attention on the hundred little things that build our numbers over time.

Remember it is first down yardage that wins games and lots of small victories that win whole communities to Jesus.

The process includes reading Rick’s very prophetic book “The Purpose Driven Life.” We got the congregation through it once with huge changes occurring in individuals as a result. I got so excited that I asked them to read it over once more. This morning I was involved in that exercise when I came upon an interesting statement, “People who don’t know their purpose try to do too much—and that causes stress, fatigue, and conflict.”

“Stress, fatigue and conflict.” Those three words describe many pastors today. Are you one of them? I often find myself living among them, especially stress and fatigue.

What’s the problem?
I think a lot about boundaries. I even read an excellent book by that title. But, the boundaries that I set are often inadequate. I have the usual boundaries around my time. I won’t allow anyone to take away my day off. I regularly date my wife. I keep office hours and protect myself from off-hours telephone calls. I even had an unlisted phone number starting from the first day in this pastorate. Yet, I still take on more than I can reasonably accomplish.

There is the rub. For me, at least. My dad taught me “If a job is worth doing, it is worth doing well.” Poor performance necessarily accompanies over-commitment. Stress, fatigue and even conflict soon follow.

What to do?
What should you do if your life is filled with anxiety, depression, too much email and not enough recreation? I’ve tried the time management route. While it works for awhile, the results are simply not that long lasting. I need something more.

Our home life got even more complicated during the past few months while my wife has had to battle with breast cancer. We had a jillion appointments with doctors, therapists and other hospital personnel. Managing the calendar got all the bases covered, but it did little to alleviate the stress and fatigue that stalked our every step. The only thing that has worked for us is realigning our purposes.

Actually, I don’t think we can realign our purposes. God sets them and they remain pretty much unmovable. But we can realign our lives around our purposes.

By taking stock of my purposes, I can filter out those activities that actually belong to someone else. I can give high priority to those activities which support my purposes before God. Life suddenly becomes simple. Warren wrote, “It is impossible to do everything people want you to do. You have just enough time to do God’s will.” That sentence stabbed me deep in my gut. I painfully acknowledge that I haven’t enough time to do everything asked of me. But, “just enough time to do God’s will.” I never thought of that before. I want to operate from that premise—I have enough time. Instead of complaining that I haven’t enough, I want to discern the purposes and actions that God built into my life and shed all other activities.

For me, my purposes are the basic five that Rick mentions in his book: “worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry and evangelism.” However under ministry I have four very significant sub-purposes. They are 1. Life with my wife. 2. Love for my children and grandchildren. 3. To pastor Hope Chapel Kaneohe Bay. 4. To promote the message and how-to of church planting.

Adhering to these purposes allows me to refuse to do a lot that is asked of me. I can do so with grace. Even more important, I can convince others that I am making the right decision by refusing their request. Of course, teaching the church about purpose makes it a lot easier. Without their cooperation, I would simply feed the stress machine that much more fuel.

A final thought
I am not suggesting that we abandon our Palm Pilots or other time management tools. Simply that we narrow the field as to what we will include in them. Rick wrote, “If you can’t get it all done, it means you’re trying to do more than God intended for you to do…” I don’t want to live at cross-purposes with the Creator and neither do you.

That evangelist was an old friend I invited to preach to my youth group in 1970. His manipulations may have worked in the years prior to that event, but they turned me off. I was one of only three people left standing in direct opposition to his pleas to come forward for one thing or another. Throughout the next week I found myself answering lots of questions from pliable but confused high schoolers. I soon figured that I had to come up with a different way for people to express repentance than to pray on the ground at the end of a church meeting.

Postmodern people are opposed to public displays of religiosity. They also suspect you if you try to get them off into a side room to pray or counsel. Any effective coming to Christ ritual in a church meeting has to be out in the open and fairly simple if it is to appeal to postmoderns.

Here is how I try to end every weekend worship celebration in our congregation:

1. Pray over message
Invite the audience to join in a prayer of commitment appropriate to the teaching they just heard. This prayer usually involves two or three specific responses to the word of God.

2. Give a short gospel presentation
In ninety seconds or less, you can get lots of the gospel on the table. Especially if you believe any non-believers in your audience were brought, or sent, by Christians who would have already shared the basics of the gospel message.

3. Explain what we will be doing
After the first prayer, I explain the second. It goes like this:

Please keep your eyes closed a little longer. I know some of you would like to invite God into your lives. I want to pray again with you to allow you to do so.

The Bible teaches that God is knocking at the door of your mind asking to come in. All you have to do is invite him. I want to lead you in a prayer to invite him into your life. In fact, we are going to do what we just did—I will pray aloud while you pray silently. You can hitchhike on my words. No one will hear you but God. But, before we pray together I want you to let me know if you intend to pray with me. The reason for this is that Jesus said that if we would confess him before others, he would admit to God of his relationship with us. So I want you to tell me if you intend to pray with me. The signal is simple. If you want to pray, please look at me right now. Everyone has their eyes closed so your act of looking up will be a signal between us. I am going to pray in sixty seconds. If you want to join me, look at me now.

As people look up, I acknowledge each one. Often, I will say “thank you,” or simply, “I see you.” Usually after acknowledging a person, I wall ask “Who else wants to pray with me?” Or, I will say, “I’m sure there is another person who needs to invite God into their life.” I will wait till I am sure there are no more responses.

4. Pray again
Now we pray the second prayer. It is simply an invitation and rehearses the basics of the gospel. It always ends with a request to feel God’s peace and to learn more of him through Christian friends, reading the Bible and through our church.

5. Offer literature
We do announcements and take the offering at the end of service. This makes it easy for the person giving announcements to invite the new converts to a table located near our information center. They are promised an information packet including a New Testament, a couple of tracts and a cd of our music. This is the same table where all first-timers will go to trade an information card for a free audio recording of that day’s teaching. The people operating the table are trained to make friends and to spot any obvious needs. They do their best to connect the new Christian to whatever ministry he or she is amenable to at that time. Though most simply want the literature, most are happy to make a new friend.

6. Follow up with letters and invitations
Those who fill out cards as first timers get a letter thanking them for worshipping with us. A couple of weeks later, they get an invitation to our “Taste of Hope” barbecue where they learn what makes our church tick. They also meet staff people one on one during the dinner. Again, friendship is the goal. Their new friends direct them into the life of the church and specific ministries designed to meet their needs. For new Christians, this would include our “Fresh Start With God” class. At this meeting, our goal is to involve each new person in a ministry assignment or locate a small group for them.

7. Follow through with staff
At the staff meeting following the “Taste of Hope” staff members share a little about each person they met, including photos we took as we signed everyone into the dinner. Staffers then “adopt” the people they met, phoning them for lunch or dinner appointments to be sure we are meeting their needs.

All of this is time consuming. But it pays off. Far more people will visit your church than will join. Many will be in need of salvation. All are looking for friendship. A little focused effort goes a long way toward building the Kingdom of God.

A DIFFERENT APPROACH TO EDUCATION
This is my second visit to Mongolia. I was there a year ago to teach in a ten week school for existing pastors. The school recruits ten already successful pastors and runs one week every three months stretching over two-and-a-half years. Each segment includes homework that requires changes in the church with reports to be written on the results. Very little book-learning, much practicality.

My job was to end the process with a one-week challenge to plant churches. My words met opposition from pastors who had already become infected with the “mega-church mentality.” They each wanted to pastor the biggest church in Ulaanbaatar. I told them that their ideas were great if they wanted to build a big church, but inadequate if they planned to revolutionize their society. There were 130 churches in the entire country at the time (June, 2001) with composite membership of 10,000 persons. This is up from just five known Christians when the Soviets left the country in 1989. Church growth has been rapid because church planting has run unabated. The mega-church idea would slow that growth to a crawl because of problems obtaining property, etc. Most churches currently operate beneath the pro-Buddhist government radar. They operate in borrowed and rented buildings. To move to larger quarters is difficult and would ultimately slow momentum.

BUYING IN
One pastor bought into the idea of church multiplication after fighting me for the better part of a day. One year later, his original congregation has grown from 160 to just over 200. He has five daughter churches with a sixth on the launch-pad. The total number of people in the daughter churches nearly equals that of the mother church. This means their total numbers have grown by more than 100% in the past twelve months. All in a church that can’t afford to repair its broken sound system.

This pastor is a brilliant man who has made huge sacrifices for the gospel. He is a physician specializing in nuclear medicine. He was trained in Moscow in the aftermath of the countries relationship with Russia. He resigned his practice to become the pastor of just six people when the American missionary who led him to the Lord left the country. He is 34-years-old.

He began church planting by canvassing his members for relationships with people in the rural towns of Mongolia who might be interested in the gospel. Or, for those who might already be Christians but have no church nearby. After that, he and his leaders established contact with these people, planting churches in houses and even one in a “ghere,” the traditional Mongolian tent used by still-nomadic people. Members of his leadership team travel to these churches one time per month to encourage budding pastors and help with problems and strategy. There is almost no financial outlay other than Bibles, books and gasoline for the trips—which take up to 13 hours each way (300 miles) due to the condition of roads.

BIBLICAL APPROACH
This strategy is almost an exact overlay of that which Jesus gave to the seventy-two people he commissioned in Luke 10:1-11. The person who becomes leader of the new church is the “son of peace” mentioned in verse six (KJV). It also parallels Paul’s strategy of making disciples of his new converts then appointing them as leaders in emerging congregations (Acts 14:21-23).

VASTLY REDUCED COSTS IN FOUR AREAS
For me this plan represents a paradigm shift away from the expense of sending out a group of people, fully loaded with hardware, to start a ministry in a town that may, or may not, receive them. This strategy minimizes the cost of personnel and rent. As the new church grows out of a house, it takes on its own costs in terms of buildings and salaries. The mother church would be free to invest its resources in the planting of yet-newer churches. The Mongolian plan, if implemented in the United States, would also reduce the drain of both members and leaders that many pastors fear when thinking about church planting.

Think of it, virtually all the costs of church planting arise in four areas: 1. Personnel. 2. Rent and mortgages. 3. Leadership drain. 4. Loss of membership strength. Here is an idea—refined in a developing nation that could help even the smallest of churches reproduce itself at nearly no cost. In fact, it would probably help a small church to grow if it got such a vision for the harvest. And, this strategy was invented by Jesus. What more could we ask for?

We rented our first public school for services six months into the life of our church in Hawaii. I was still a newcomer. This meant that I dressed and spoke like a tourist who thought he was a local. In other words, a lot about my demeanor was somewhat offensive to people who grew up in the community.

The relationship with the school leadership was going nowhere. I couldn’t seem to communicate with the principal. My mistakes were many, and they always magnified into crises. One day, I took my secretary along to a meeting with the principal. While waiting to see him, she struck up a conversation with his secretary. This woman had previously been very cold toward me. My secretary found an opportunity to explain the church and its mission. She explained why she trusted me, and my plans for our church. She even made jokes apologizing for my funny clothes and odd speech. When the principal came to greet us, his secretary went out of her way to introduce me to him with great respect. Actually, she tipped him off that she had now accepted me into her world. In our meeting, my secretary then casually gave him the same rundown that she had given his secretary. He and I became friends that day. He eventually accepted the Lord through the efforts of one of our members who was on his faculty. Our problems diminished from that day forward.

New relationships always carry the burden of potential miscommunication. The church planter faces a host of them. Most of those covered in this article may seem insignificant at a time when you want to focus on evangelism and growth strategies. But, they are necessary to your success. To the degree that you cultivate these six relationships, you will walk a smooth path into spiritual victory. These “extracurricular” relationships are 1. A landlord who makes it possible for you to meet. 2. The financial institutions necessary to your success. 3. Your parent church and its support capacities. 4. Your denomination if you have one. 5. Other churches and pastors in your community. 6. A personal prayer team who will support you over the long haul. We have space to deal with the first of these in this brief space.

Getting along with your landlord

Your landlord can hurt you in ways that no one else can. Will you get bumped from the community center some weekend for another neighborhood activity? Will the principal defend you if someone challenges your right to meet in a public school? Do you have to hire a janitor to open and close the property? Or will the landlord trust you with keys to the facility?

This relationship is crucial and can be unforgiving. Yet, it isn’t that hard to get right. Clear communications go a long way. As does a humble and serving heart.

Designated communicator

Just before moving to Hawaii, I met a pastor who held church in a large mortuary chapel for 11 years. He gave me this wonderful advice: “Appoint one person to the exclusive right to communicate with the people you rent from. Ask the landlord to do likewise. Allow no exchanges other than through those two people.” Many churches get into trouble because they never learn the value of a designated communicator. When three or four people on one side speak to two or three on the other they are bound to create conflict. A single channel of communication insures that there is only one version of any plan or calendar. Appoint someone you trust. If possible, this should be a person with an existing relationship with your landlord. Keep close to this person, but stay out of their way. You’ll have lots less trouble.

Humble heart

You should view your rental contract as an act of God’s grace. Thank him for it. Also, thank the people who control the property for their kindness toward you. If you rent a public building, your rent money will probably go to a central office, the parks department or the board of education. The people who actually put up with you will incur extra expense and may not be reimbursed for it. So don’t act like you are entitled to the property and correlating services. Keep a thankful heart and you maintain a humble spirit. Develop an arrogant and demanding attitude and you are on the way out of favor—and out of a meeting place.

The extra mile

Jesus said we should volunteer to walk an extra mile when asked to carry someone’s load. His advice certainly applies to the church in rented quarters. You can win your landlord’s heart by going the extra distance. See the rent as the first mile. Beautification projects and favors are the second.

We even found ways to help beautify the office buildings that we leased. At one such facility the neighborhood kids continually trampled the landscape and broke a fence to shortcut into another property. We asked permission to repair the fence and planted colorful thorn bushes to discourage the trespassers. Once we replaced damaged hall carpet when we redecorated our own space. Flowers in an outside planter box brought a smile to the landlord’s face.

Our church operated for 14 years in one public school. We paid wonderfully low rent to the school district. However, we also raised an average $15,000 per year for projects ranging from cancer treatment for a student to campus beautification. We assembled a team to clean graffiti within a day’s notice. We partnered with the school and the local police to warn parents about the latest drugs available to their kids. We partnered with the school to sponsor a debate between gubernatorial candidates. We held annual workdays to clean the campus before opening day. We painted two classrooms each year. We also painted the cafeteria where we held services every year just before school started.

Make friends

Secretaries and janitors interface with their boss on a daily basis. You do so only occasionally. Build a relationship with the landlord’s assistants and you will have the friendship of their employer. Offend them and you are in big trouble. Go out of your way to brighten the lives of these very important people.

A bouquet of flowers or a dozen chocolate chip cookies to share with her friends can make a secretary smile whenever she thinks of your church. Janitors love cookies too. A small box of candy dropped off every time you go in to meet the boss will accomplish the same results. Most churches display flowers on Sundays. Why not pass them on when Monday morning rolls around? What about all those poinsettias at Christmas or the lilies at Easter? If left at the front desk of a public school they can brighten the day of a bunch of teachers who have to share their classrooms with your Sunday School.

Not every relationship you establish will be with your growing membership. But, every relationship carries that potential if you remain alert and operate in love. Even problems or misunderstandings can lead to evangelism if you play them right. Learn to value the relationships at the periphery of your church. They are necessary to your survival and each offers an opportunity to further build the kingdom.

We’ve had to wait to rebuild in other times, though we usually pick up the numbers of people within just a few weeks after launching a new ministry. I’m not worried about rebuilding. What worries me is paying the mortgage in the meantime.

September 11 isn’t the issue
Let me be clear from the outset. I don’t believe the September 11 crime has hurt our church all that much. As soon as it happened, we went into serious public prayer for our people and their jobs. Hawaii is hard-hit by the fear of flying that has crippled our premier industry, tourism. Unemployment here is very high (hint: You guys can help. Just get on a plane and come visit). But, our people are keeping their jobs. We established a fund to help the newly unemployed but have had very few takers. I praise God for his care in this huge matter.

But, let me get back to my unbelief. It goes like this. The offerings haven’t been so hot since late August when we started the new church. Later I pre-announced a two week speaking trip and many people stayed home from church while I was gone. That further complicated our finances. We drowned in red ink during October and November. Then came December. Year-end offerings were huge—the biggest in many years. We also received a large one-time cash gift. The first deposit in January brought in another large offering (still year-end, 2001 money). We are back in black ink. In fact, we are back to where we were in August. We broke even and I’m still wallowing in fear and unbelief. I wonder if you ever do the same? My worries stem from the fact that we are floating because of unique events like the year end offerings or the big gift. I crave the security of steady income. I hate roller coasters.

Jehovah-jireh
But, the Lord has this way of stretching faith. He calls even himself “Jehovah-jireh” or “The Lord Will Provide” (Genesis 22:14). The problem with God is that he insists on running the show. Instead of providing in ways I can predict, he insists on blessings at his own pace. Or, in this case, proving that he is Lord over the one-time event. And, that is the real point of this article. I’ve once again been brought to face the fact that God is Lord over our circumstances. He can string together a whole bunch of one-time blessings if he chooses. It is me who needs to stretch.

When I planted the first Hope Chapel we always made it—barely. One day, I was counting the offering (something I should have delegated by then). I was appalled to discover that we were living on other people’s sales bonuses, Christmas gifts, real estate commissions, etc. I could explain away every offering by pointing to an individual who tithed on a special blessing in their lives. I got real depressed. Logic told me that it was special events, not God, that were keeping our church afloat.

Boy did I get a tongue lashing. The Lord spoke to me that night. He told me that he was the God of special events and that he could prove it by turning off the flow of them if I preferred. I, of course, told him that wasn’t such a good idea. At that point, I realized that the offering box is not my provider. The Lord is Jehovah-jireh. Our God will supply all our needs according to his riches in Christ. It is an old lesson but one worth re-learning every so often.

Just Too Busy
All too often, I see young pastors so heavily involved in the ministry that they leave their families to whatever time is left over. In my own life, I’ve planted two congregations. Each endeavor took time from my family, but both times I tried to keep them from scrapping for leftovers. I wrote them into my schedule ahead of time.

I would mark a calendar for an entire year with family time. We would usually go to dinner on Monday evenings. Tuesdays were for the kids’ favorite television shows, etc. I tried to eat every dinner and most breakfasts at home with my family. The simple act of marking the calendar made me reluctant to assign the time to another slot. Another tool was to tell people that my family represented an important priority in my life and that I would honor that priority.

A Theology for Family Time
I have a theology for family time. It is one that I teach from the pulpit every few years. It comes from Ephesians 5 and 6. Paul tells us to understand the will of the Lord in Ephesians 5:17. He then moves to praise and worship instead of dulling our senses through alcohol. After that he says we should submit to one another in love. Then he addresses family issues. He begins with husbands and wives living in mutual surrender to each other and finishes by discussing the relationship between parents and children. In the segment touching on slavery, he gives us a heart for the workplace. He finishes the discourse by addressing spiritual warfare, which is ministry. I believe this is a priority structure for my life. I don’t get to ministry unless I have things right with God, my fellow believers, my family and so on.

By teaching this in church, I build a foundation for living my priorities when choices must be made about the use of time. In the long run, this contributes to the ability to teach every member of the body to use their gifts. It helps keep from concentrating all ministry in the hands of the senior pastor or an over-driven team around him.

Choices to Make
I recently spoke to a pastor from Europe. He leads a rapidly growing congregation. They are going through some very good growing pains. Among them is the pastor’s schedule. I asked him when he had time for his family. He could only identify one day each week that his family could guarantee his presence in the home. And, even that day often got stolen by church activities. My council to him and to you is to mark your calendar or your handheld for a year in advance. Set aside sacred time with your wife and children. Your church will be far healthier for it.

Ultimately this comes to a personal choice. We can say we value our families above our ministry. But, the proof is in the place where we spend our time.

Where I live we celebrate “Pastor’s Appreciation Day.” Every year the local Christian radio station admonishes the saints to bless their pastors with cards and letters. I usually get one or two in spite of the fact that I think the appreciation usually flows in the wrong direction. I think we pastors too often under-appreciate the people entrusted to our care.

SELF APPRAISAL
Some beat their church down in an unhealthy sort of self-appraisal. They feel that they aren’t doing enough to make the church grow so they demean its size. This assessment is really a reflection of their feelings about themselves or their own leadership ability. But, it becomes an unintended put-down on the Lord over that pastor’s congregation who said, “I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it” (Matthew 16:18 NLT). Church size is his problem. Caring for the believers is yours.

Think you have problems? Consider Moses. His “congregation” was growing because of illicit sex as the people partied around the golden calf. After the incident Moses was at an all time low for leadership. In his conversation with the Lord, he reminded God that the people belonged to him and that as a human leader he was just a follower of orders, “Please, if this is really so, show me your intentions so I will understand you more fully and do exactly what you want me to do. Besides, don’t forget that this nation is your very own people” (Exodus 33:13). You and I need to remember the wisdom in his plea. The people don’t belong to us, so church growth is not our department of worry. Because they belong to him we must tend them according to his direction. The imperative in our lives is to hear and obey his directives

COMPARISONS
Our problems stem from our continued awareness of other churches. That awareness would be great if we could measure all the factors contributing to their health. Trouble is, most are not visible. There are no ideal standards to measure by.

Ideal Size
There is never an ideal church size. Every community is different. So is each leadership team. Many small towns and big-city neighborhoods can be served, most effectively, by the proliferation of small congregations. Wherever people identify closely with each other in their community they will choose a family-style approach to church.

Adequate Resources
If ideal church size is a myth, so is the concept of “adequate resources.” Many of my friends pastor smaller churches. They can often be heard to say things like, “If we were larger we could afford to do more.” The truth is that larger churches usually have less money in the bank compared to their income stream than do smaller congregations. They may have more dollars in the bank, but they are more vulnerable in a downturn. The same goes for involvement of volunteers. The larger the church the more difficult it is to achieve, say 80 percent participation.

None Better Than Another
None of this is to say that a small congregation is better than a larger one. Only, that you can’t defend a larger church over a small one. All are valuable in God’s kingdom—including the one you pastor.

DO YOU LOVE YOUR PEOPLE?
Your people can sense whether you love them or not. They will feel your dissatisfaction if you are depressed over the size of your assignment. Or they will feel the joy you take from serving and sharing life with them.

I recently watched a pastor struggle against his assignment. His church grew many times over from a tiny group to a very respectable size. But, he was never happy. He spent almost his entire tenure applying for jobs in larger churches. Finally he landed a position at a troubled church twice the size of the one he led. This man’s successor unknowingly hit a raw nerve when he announced that he was thrilled to lead “these people.” That he felt called by God to “this place.” And, that he could spend his life in “this position.” The people went nuts with joy over their new leader. When asked if they didn’t feel guilty for transferring their affections so quickly they had a telling response. They said, “No, we don’t miss him. We also don’t think he misses us.”

I wonder what those two pastors will be feeling five years from now. I’m pretty sure the first guy will be just as dissatisfied as ever. Given that he took a troubled church just because it was larger, he may not even be in ministry. I’d bet that the second guy will be joyfully serving in the job he just assumed. I’m also pretty sure that his congregation will grow because he appreciates his people and his role. Growth usually comes to those who are faithful (and happy) in the small places.