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Category: Church (page 25 of 28)

5 church planting gurus you should follow

Since Grace Community Church, where I serve on staff, is going multi-site in early 2011, I thought it fitting to mention some of the people who are influential in the world of multi-site churches. You can read the rest of my “Follow Friday” series HERE.

Mac Lake – Mac is the Chief Launch Officer of The Launch Network, a new church planting network based out of West Ridge Church in the greater Atlanta, Georgia area. You can read his blog HERE, and follow him on Twitter HERE.

Greg Surratt – Greg is the founding pastor of Seacoast Church, one of the early adopters of the multi-site model. Located in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, Greg is also a founding board member of the Association of Related Churches (ARC). You can read his blog HERE and follow him on Twitter HERE.

*While you’re at it, go ahead and follow his brothers on Twitter, too: Chris Surratt (small groups pastor at Cross Point Church in Nashville, TN) and Geoff Surratt (pastor of ministries at Sea Coast, co-author of The Multisite Church Revolution and A Multisite Church Roadtrip; you can read his blog HERE).

Larry Osborne – I was introduced to Larry through his book, Sticky Church. It was basically a book about how to add a stickiness (encourage people to continue attending your church) to your church through small groups. Larry is the pastor at North Coast Church in Vista, CA, one of the pioneers in the video venue church services. You can follow him on Twitter HERE and read his blog HERE.

JD Greer – Pastor at Summit Church in Raleigh, NC, a church that meets in multiple locations, and does small groups incredibly well. You can follow him on Twitter HERE, and read his blog HERE. If you care…their small groups pastor is a good friend of mine, and you can follow him on Twitter HERE, blog HERE.

Darrin Patrick – Pastor at The Journey Church in St. Louis, and author of Church Planter. Darrin is a leading voice in the Acts 29 network of church planting, a network that has planted over 300 churches in the last 10 years. You can follow him on Twitter HERE.

Who did I leave out that I should have included?

John Ortberg and spiritual growth

October 14, 2010 / Ben Reed / 5 Comments

John Ortberg kicked off Catalyst 2010 pre-labs, speaking on how spiritual growth happens.

How does spiritual growth happen?

1. It starts with a reminder that there is a God. And it is not you.

2. Remember that transformation requires at least as much grace as salvation.

We tend to cycle between guilt, trying harder, feeling fatigue, quitting, then feeling guilt.

3. Living in grace is learned behavior.

In most churches, we have reduced grace to the forgiveness of sins. It’s so much bigger than that. God was a gracious God before anybody sinned.

What if the Spirit really is like a river, available and flowing all the time? (John 7:38-39) If so, then spiritual formation can’t be a program…it should be happening all of the time. Our job is simply to jump into that river and figure out what is blocking us from jumping in.

4. Growth is hand-crafted, not mass produced.

What would drown a cactus would dry out an orchid. What would feed a mouse would starve an elephant. God never grows two people the same way. He’s existent from eternity, but has never had a relationship with you.

There is no one-size-fits-all spiritual formation, so don’t simply measure someone’s devotion to God by their devotional life. If we measure spiritual growth by devotional activities, then the Pharisees win!

Here are two questions to ask yourself:

Am I growing more or less irritable these days?
Am I growing more or less discouraged these days?

A word to moms of preschoolers: maybe you can grow more spirutally by engaging in acts of love and selfless acts of service than by memorizing the whole book of Jeremiah.

5. God’s desire is to create the best version of you.

An acorn will grow into an oak…though the oak may be healthy or not. Redemption is always the redemption of what God has already created. The goal isn’t to grow and become somebody else, but rather to grow into who God created you to be.

When Jesus says, “Seek first the Kingdom,” he’s not heaping a burden, but telling us where the life is.

The world isn’t likely to respond to a Gospel of transformation proclaimed by untransformed people.

What blocks the work of the Spirit in your life?

Leveraging Technology

October 12, 2010 / Ben Reed / 1 Comment

The problem in our churches isn’t our use of technology. Technology is just a medium, a tool we can use for the sake of the Gospel.

In their book, The Multi-site Church Revolution: Being One Church in Many Locations, authors Surratt, Ligon, and Bird talk about the history of leveraging technology.

The idea of leveraging the latest technology for kingdom service is nothing new. Nor is the pushback, questioning, or occasional controversy raised by such changes. When I (Warren) was visiting relatives in Germany, I toured a famous medieval monastery in Germany. I learned how they took the church into the community by doing religious dramas. To reach the most people, they performed some of the dramas at night, which raised the need for lighting. By putting candles in front of colored glass, they created colored lighting, much like today’s stage lights. “Was this controversial?” I asked our guide. “What do you think?” she responded with a smile. Reading church history is fascinating because it reminds us that every generation asks about the appropriateness of using technology to do church.

In our church, we leverage all kinds of technology: colored lights, speakers, microphones, amplifiers, video projection, YouVersion Live, computers, and iPods.

In our small group, we leverage technology as well: DVD players, TVs, cell phones (to read our Bibles), and email and Facebook to communicate throughout the week.

Technology itself isn’t evil. It’s a neutral medium that the Church is called to utilize and redeem. It can often make our services, and our small groups, more engaging, more attractive, more relevant, more influential (allowing churches to broadcast to multiple sites), more streamlined, and more connected.

But maybe I’m wrong.

Are there certain technologies that should be considered off-limits to churches?

How does your church (or small group) use technology to advance the Gospel?

We’re going multi-site

October 4, 2010 / Ben Reed / 1 Comment

Just this past Sunday, we at Grace Community Church announced that we will be a mult-site church in January, 2011. The response was overwhelmingly positive, with so many people saying how eager they are to pray with us, and some already committing to being a part of the launch team.

We will be expanding to Kenwood High School, which is about 10 miles north of the high school where we currently meet.

If you’re currently worshipping in a permanent facility that you own, this move may make little sense to you. You may wonder why we didn’t just move forward with building a permanent facility on the land that we own. Why would we even consider starting another campus in a high school, knowing how difficult it will be to continue setting up and tearing down every week?

There are many, many reasons that we considered as we sought God’s plan, and we’re convinced that this is what He’s calling us as a church to do…and not build right now.

In the book The MultiSite Church Revolution: Being One Church in Many Locations by Geoff Surratt, Greg Ligon, and Warren Bird, they take a look at Community Christian Church in Chicago. Pastor Dave Ferguson lists eight advantages, each of which solves a problem in its own way:

Grow larger and grow smaller
Brand-new and trusted brand
Staff with generalists and specialists
Less cost and greater impact
New-church vibe and big-church punch
Move there and stay here
More need and more support
More outreach and more maturity

I love the reasons given there for going multi-site. Though not all of the reasons are specific for us, they do make great sense for us in our context.

Are you doing multi-site in your church? Help us learn from you!

What have you learned? What worked? What didn’t?

If you were in our shoes right now, what would you be reading? Doing? Who would you be talking with?

Tomorrow, I’ll tell you why I feel like multi-site makes great sense from a small groups perspective. In the meantime, though, I’d love to hear from you and your story with multi-sites!

Follow Friday, my coworkers

September 30, 2010 / Ben Reed / 0 Comments

Continuing my Follow Friday series (you can catch up HERE), I thought I’d keep it in-house this week.

I love the guys I work with at Grace Community Church. We’ve got an amazing team, with creative folks that are working their tails off for the Kingdom. I’m humbled to be a part of the team, and work side by side with these guys as we passionately serve Clarksville. You should follow each one of them, and hear how they’re leading in their respective ministry.

Adam Bayne – Director of Children’s ministries. Twitter. Blog.

Michael Bayne – Director of Family ministries. Twitter. Blog.

Christy Crosby – Systems coordinator. Facebook. Blog.

Ron Edmondson – Co-pastor. Twitter. Blog.

Karen Grizzard – Director of Volunteer placement. Twitter. Blog.

Melanie Hill – Director of service programming. Facebook.

Rog Hill – Director of serve ministry. Twitter. Blog.

Brandon Reed – Director of college ministry. Twitter. Blog.

Chad Rowland – Co-pastor. Twitter. Blog.

Jason Roy – Worship pastor. Twitter.

Katrina Watts – Director of preschool ministries. Blog.

Dennis Weiland – Business administrator. Twitter. Blog.

Decision paralysis

September 30, 2010 / Ben Reed / 6 Comments

Last night, my wife and I tried out a new restaurant in town. We love trying new places, and sushi is one of our favorites. So when we found out about a Japanese fusion restaurant (I’m still not exactly sure what that means, even after eating there), we were stoked.

When we sat down, we began to look at the menu (which, mind you, was in English). I flipped past the first page. Then on to page 2…then 3…and on to the 4th, 5th, and 6th pages. Then back to 1. Then to 2…and so on. I did this 4 times…I’m not kidding. Our waiter approached the table and asked, “Are you ready to order?” And you know what my decision was? “Sorry, I’m not quite ready yet.” When the waiter returned a couple minutes later, I had the same reply. And I was no closer to ordering than when I walked into the restaurant. Why?

I had decision paralysis.

There were so many choices that I just couldn’t decide what I wanted. My guess is that there were over 100 menu items, each with a sentence or two description. I was overwhelmed. Hence, I couldn’t make a decision.

It had nothing to do with the fact that I was torn between a couple of different items, with one good and another bad. In fact, I have no doubt (based on how good our food was) that all of their food is superb. I just couldn’t decide what I wanted.

Think I’m weird? The other 5 people at the table had the same problem when they were ordering. There were just too many choices.

And I think we fall into that same trap in our churches. It seems like a good idea, right? Offering a program that fits each person’s given wants seems intuitive. Going the simple route is counter-intuitive.

But if you try to be all things to all people, you’ll leave people confused. Paralyzed. Unable to move. Not sure which direction to take.

Take a look at your current discipleship structure. Work your strategy so that you help your church grow healthy disciples, but don’t leave them so overwhelmed by choices that they end up making no choice. By simplifying your structure, you leave room for people to invest in their families and community. It also allows you (church leadership) to devote all of your energy towards that one discipleship plan, and execute it with excellence.

I’m all about simplifying. Maybe it’s time that your church or organization let dead programs go ahead and die. Or start doing away with programs that aren’t accomplishing your strategy anymore.

By offering less, you can actually offer more.

But maybe I’m off base. What do you think?

Ever been a part of a church or organization that offered too many options?

At least it’s worse than mine

September 21, 2010 / Ben Reed / 4 Comments

Ever seen the show Hoarding: Buried Alive?

If you want to feel much better about the socks you have on your floor and your unmade bed, go ahead and watch this show. As my wife and I watched it, I honestly was blown away at the trash that has piled up in these people’s homes. It’s so visible to everybody else that there’s a problem here. But check out this quote from one of the people highlighted on the show:

I just found out I’m a hoarder.

My response to the TV (come on…I’m not the only one that talks to the TV, am I?) at that point:

Seriously?

The camera pans out to her living room, almost filled to the ceiling with stuff, with a pathway just barely wide enough to walk through to get from the front door to the kitchen. The kitchen table is so full that it can’t be eaten on (and hasn’t been for 6 years). In order to get into the bedroom, she has to move bags of more stuff and a cabinet. When the bedroom door opens, more stuff is piled nearly to the ceiling. Her husband hasn’t lived at home (because of the hoarding) for years, and her children are suffering as well, with one son saying lamenting the fact that he can’t ever have any friends over to hang out.

She’s just now realizing she’s got a problem?!?

Can I get a collective, “Wow. That’s sad. That’s so messed up.” Go ahead…everybody say it together…

Isn’t it so easy to notice someone else’s sin? It sticks out like a sore thumb (their thumb, not ours…if it were our sore thumb, we’d probably notice it). And it’s almost comical that they don’t see it themselves, right?

The flip side of that coin must be true as well…you have faults that are obvious to those around you, yet you go on not noticing them. Others look on and wonder, “How does he not notice?” … “Does she not even care?”

Why do we like to find people that have sins that are “worse” than ours? Because it helps us feel better about ourselves, easing our consciences. And it keeps our own struggles at bay. If there’s somebody out there worse than me, I don’t have to worry, because me and God…we must be good. Because God grades on the curve, right?

Which explains why in our churches, small groups, family gatherings, and circles of friends, it’s easier to say, “You’re not allowed” than to say, “I’ll walk this journey with you.”

We need others to help us see ourselves for who we really are…and are willing to say, “You’ve got mustard on your face.” Because our hearts are deceitful…even to ourselves (Jeremiah 17:9). We can walk through life thinking we’re pretty awesome…and other people are pretty rotten. And shows like Hoarding:Buried Alive only amplify that tendency. But if we have people in our lives that love us, encourage us, and are willing to walk through the junk with us…life’s much easier.

My sin’s not worse than yours. Yours isn’t worse than mine. We’re on this journey of the Christian life together.

And we’re better together than on our own.

4 Things Growing Churches Do

September 14, 2010 / Ben Reed / 0 Comments

I never joined a fraternity.

I wasn’t a recluse at all…I had my circles of relationships. I just didn’t ever join a fraternity. And part of my reason for not joining was that I thought the whole thing was just weird.

They wore different colors. They were always busy with fraternity activities. They had their own house. Their own chants. Their own jokes. Their own handshakes. Their own sections at the games. Their own language.

While fraternities had many positive things to offer (community, sense of belonging, lifelong friends, etc.) here are some negatives I noticed.

Where Fraternities missed the mark, they:

1. Were exclusivistic. If you weren’t one of them, you were treated like you were an outsider.

2. Seemed to lose the individual to the collective whole. After a person joined a fraternity, their identity became wrapped up with that fraternity.

3. Sent candidates through a long initiation process that, to those on the outside, was silly and pointless.

4. Dominated people’s time, and kept them from integrating with the rest of the student body.

I think this is what unhealthy churches do, too. I know, I know…we should be developing healthy communities of people that love and care for each other. But shouldn’t we want to grow? Our goal as the Church isn’t to add just a certain type of the incoming class of freshmen…because our Savior died for people from every race and every tribe! If you want to add people to your local church (evangelism), you have to start thinking about how they will perceive what you do.

So how do we do that? Take a cue from what fraternities do.

Growing churches…

1. Aren’t exclusivistic. *Before you comment, please read below* Rather, these churches take an inclusive stance to those outside of the faith, positioning and presenting their local church in a way that doesn’t offend, but invites, outsiders to come and see. These churches consistently think, “How will a first-time guest perceive, and understand, what we do here?”

2. Give people the space to process, and the freedom to be themselves. If you’re producing drones that simply parrot back the “right” answer, never thinking and processing for themselves, then you’re doing a disservice to the individual God has created. God has created us unique, and our uniqueness as individuals makes for a beautiful Church.

3. Don’t make the integration process difficult. If someone is seeking and curious, give them the chance to explore. Immediately! Don’t make them go through a 12-week membership process before they can serve, join a small group, or feel like they’re a part of your church family. Strike while that iron’s hot.

4. Don’t dominate people’s time. Intuition says that more programs = more spiritual growth. But if you have church activities every night of the week, how do you expect your church to truly be a vital part of the community? How do you expect individuals to invest in their family? How do you expect staff members to have any time of their own? Advocating a simple model in your local church shows that you value investing in your community and in your families.

What other things do growing churches do?

*I’m not meaning theological exclusivity, as in the exclusivity of the Gospel (John 14:6). My defense of that can come in another post.

Introverts, Extroverts, and small groups part 4

August 23, 2010 / Ben Reed / 0 Comments

I’ve posted HERE, HERE, and HERE about the ways that small groups are difficult for you whether you’re introverted or extroverted. In closing, here are a few things to remember:

1. Being introverted or extroverted isn’t a sin. It’s just how God made you. Don’t let anybody criticize you for your wiring in this area.

2. The Church needs both introverts and extroverts. Without both, things can get out of balance.

3. You need small group life. When the Bible talks about our need for authentic community (see Acts 2:42-47; Hebrews 10:24-25; the “one anothers“) it doesn’t distinguish that need to just one personality type. The Church is a diverse body with diverse needs…but we all have the need for community, because our need for community is rooted in God’s design, not in a personality type. Our need for community is not a result of the Fall (though it’s certainly complicated by the Fall), rather rooted in the fact God lives in community (the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit living in perfect community at all times) and has designed us with that need. Using your personality isn’t a valid excuse to not plugging into the life of the body of Christ (the Church). There will be difficulties along the way, for sure. And at times, you’ll find yourself wanting to back out because it’s too tough. But when you press on through that difficulty, I’m convinced you’ll find biblical community life-transforming.

Find a group of people. It may be 3. Or it may be 23. But find a small group of people that you can grow with, that love you, will encourage and admonish you, and that you can serve.

Whether you’re and introvert or an extrovert.