Size & Theology Connection

Author, Speaker and Missiologist, Ed Stetzer posted some interesting results from a recent Barna Group study, which showed the size of congregation is related to the beliefs, behavior and demographics of that congregation. Stetzer said, “Specifically the study showed ‘statistically significant differences between churches of 100 or fewer adult attenders and churches of 1000 or more adult attenders.’ In fact, the only issue covered where no real difference existed was whether the person had prayed during the previous week.”

It’s interesting stuff.

You can read more by clicking here.

Leadership Training

Here is a great resource & opportunity!

This is a free leadership conference that will be held online. And yes...I said FREE.

If you click here, you can check it out. If you are interested, all you have to do is register.

Special thanks to Stevan Sheets for passing on the information and Bob Croft for the assist. :-)

This is the actual address: http://thenines.leadnet.org/

CPAC, Day Three

I know this is ‘the day after day 3,’ but to keep with the pattern of my previous posts, this will focus on what happened our last day at the Assessment Center. I’ll write an entry or two on overall reflections soon.

Our final day began with the presentation of our group project. As we had been preparing the project for presentation to the assessors, they were meeting in order to draft our written assessments following their reviews/scores (and subsequent votes) on what kind of ‘light’ each couple had received. The project opened up the opportunity for the potential planters to interact with each other and get a little bit of insight into the process of understanding a community and a small part of the detail of planting a church. That process was one of the significant ‘takeaways’ for me from the week’s events and helped instill an even greater excitement about the potential of being a planter myself.

Following the project presentation, there was varied interaction with the assessors about the project and some of their insights. Then came the moment we had been waiting for: when we would meet with our individual assessors (the person who had done all of our one-on-one interviews) to receive our results and gain insight into how the assessors had reached their conclusions. I’m happy to report that all three of the couples were ‘green-lighted’ to pursue with church planting!

Everyone then regrouped to have a Q&A—this time with the planting couples asking questions of the assessment team. There was discussion about ‘next steps’ (especially the need for training) and some practical helps which included a number of resources being given out. The ‘official’ day ended with lunch, but the folks from WPA stayed longer to debrief and continue building relationship.

Each of the three couples who completed the assessment now have the joy of praying through what will happen next in their journey. But, as it stands today, there are three planters preparing to partner with God’s Spirit in touching communities with the most effective tool we have for reaching those who don’t know Christ—planting new churches. And, if you ask me, it doesn’t get much more exciting than that!

Newly Approved

Please join us in celebrating the completion of the Church Planter Assessment Center and the approval of our newest Church Planters:

Rick & Eunice Cox

Jeremiah & Sarah Gomez.

The CMTF is please to have them join the Rhone's as officially and successfully assessed W PA Church Planters.

Please continue to pray for each of our 3 couples and the future couples to come.

CPAC, Day 2

It's just about 2:30AM, and I'm getting ready to call it a night.

After a full, rich day of interviews, interviews, and more interviews (including one session with a Christian counselor), we had time for a quick seminar and some exercises, which included a pretty hefty group project. I'm just finishing with my portion of that project, and while I won't go into too much detail (because, after all, it is 2:30 in the morning), I can say the whole experience thus far has been well worth our time investment and, I believe well worth the financial investment of the district. The self-discovery and opportunity to be connected with passionate, missional-minded people which are available in this setting are not things to be taken for granted--no matter what kind of 'red-light,' yellow-light,' 'green light' evaluation we get tomorrow, Sarah and I will have counted it a great privilege to be here.

Even at this late hour, I can genuinely say that if you have ever considered that church planting may be where God will lead you in your journey, attendance at an Assessment event like this one is a must... I believe it will be a high-water mark in your life.

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This entry is also posted at jxgomez.com/blog, Jeremiah's personal blog. Jeremiah currently serves as the Secretary of the Church Multiplication Task Force and is attending CPAC as a potential planter in Western PA.

Ways to pray...

Thank you for your continued intercession. Here a few specific ways to pray for our Church Planters & Potential Parent Churches:

1. Rhone's: Pray that the Lord will continue to go before them and their parent church leaders as they develop a plan and communicate a vision to the parent church congregation.

2. Gomez's: Pray that God will speak very clearly as they go through the Assessment process this week.

3. Cox's: Pray that God will speak very clearly as they go through the Assessment process this week.

4. Pray for the church leaders that will be attending the Parent Church Seminar at Wesleyan World Headquarters on October 6th.

CPAC, Day One

Today was a great ‘introduction’ day—the three couples here for Assessment got a chance to get to know each other, and we were given a glimpse of the process involved in CPAC before jumping in headlong. Before we go any further, though, it’s worth noting that it was communicated time and time again that this process is much more about discovering who God has created us to be and to find the best ministry fit than it is about any kind of pass-or-fail scenario. The advice given to us: have fun and enjoy the incredible gift of having three days full of people taking the time to help us understand who we are and how God may be leading us. Sounds like very wise advice to me.

We began with each potential planter delivering two messages: five minutes to a ‘room of unchurched people’ on why they should consider Jesus, and five minutes attempting to convince someone to join you in a ministry endeavor. Following their ‘talks,’ each couple had a few minutes answering questions in front of the group.

That led to our first interview time—each couple was assigned an assessor and was privately interviewed for about two and half hours (there will be more interviewing tomorrow). The ‘interview’ was a lot like filling out a verbal questionnaire about past experiences. What is likely to be is best found by what has already been; in other words, how someone will act/react/perform can be pretty well predicted by how they’ve acted/reacted/performed in the past; so the assessors use questions that help identify themes and constants throughout the life of the potential planter. The times of interview, so far at least, haven’t been overly uncomfortable or super invasive, but very conversational in tone.

After our interview sessions, everybody regrouped for supper (us ‘assessees’ all sat together to enjoy some more get-to-know-you time and conversation—it’s amazing to spend time with people who are so passionate about what God not only can do but desires to do in our world.

But now it’s time to get some rest—tomorrow will be a long, full day. All of us are excited to see how God uses this time to prepare our ‘next steps.’ But before I head to bed, I would like to make a request of those who may happen to be reading this—all of our talk today has been focused on being used by God to advance his Kingdom and the glory of his Great Name, and I’m reminded of one of Jesus’ commands in terms of what we should pray for.

Matthew 9:

35 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."

So, my request is that you would ask the Lord of harvest to send out workers into his field. A bit of warning before you do that, though: you just might find yourself being sent into that very field… across the street or across the globe. And maybe part of that journey for you is taking part in an assessment much like this one…

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Image credit: Clearly Ambiguous
This entry is also posted at jxgomez.com/blog, Jeremiah's personal blog. Jeremiah currently serves as the Secretary of the Church Multiplication Task Force and is attending CPAC as a potential planter in Western PA.

C.P.A.C.

Beginning Tuesday, Sarah and I will be attending the Church Planter Assessment Center as part of a potential ‘next step’ (a special thanks Western PA District of The Wesleyan Church, who is investing the cost of attending CPAC in Sarah and me); we’ll be there with two other couples, including Rick and Eunice Cox, who are also from the WPA District. If time and energy allow, I’ll be posting reflections of the day’s activities each evening (be warned, it may be nonsensical gobbeldy-gook or nothing more than a terse sentence); hopefully, if you’re thinking of being assessed, it will help answer some of the questions you may have. It will also be a good read (I'm hoping!) for those of you who are curious about the planting and pre-planting processes we use.

In the meantime, it might be helpful to know what the Assessment is all about. Here’s how the Assessment Center describes itself:

We are confident that this will be a powerful and highly worthwhile personal experience that will provide you with greater self-awareness about your ministry strengths and gifts, as well as your potential for church planting success. You and your sponsoring district or parent church will receive an objective, team-based evaluation to help you both make the wisest possible decisions about your church planting leadership.

In other words, the people of the Center look at the likely success of an individual or couple as the ‘lead planter(s)’ in a new church. The result of a fairly intense, multi-day process is an evaluation focused simply on the likely success of the potential planter articulated as a “Green Light,” “Yellow Light” or “Red Light.”

Red Light… is an indicator that the potential planter is not likely to find themselves effective in a planting environment right now.

Yellow Light… indicates the potential planter is more likely to find success in a planting environment if certain growth areas are given due attention.

Green Light… indicates that the evaluators feel the planter is likely to find success/effectiveness in their endeavors.

It’s important to note, again, this relates just to church planting and isn’t a judgment on people, personalities or ministry calling; it is meant to help potential church planters and the districts, churches, and individuals which invest in new churches to thrive. A ‘Red Light’ shouldn’t be seen as a bad thing, but more as an aid in discerning whether or not planting is the right ministry path for someone right now. A ‘Green Light’ doesn’t mean one person/couple is ‘better’ than another, but that they seem to have the gifts and personal traits that tend to be found in effective church planters. A ‘Green Light’ isn’t a guarantee of 'success', either.

This all helps to make sure that someone isn’t setting themselves up for failure, and that they are designed for/capable of handling the unique stresses, pressures, and situations that are involved in attempting to launch a new, Kingdom advancing church. From the outside, it looks like a great opportunity for someone with potential to be a planter to find out if planting really is the right step for them.

If YOU feel like God might be leading you into the direction of planting a church, you should connect with Shawn Cossin and surf on over to Uought2.org. And, maybe one day, we'll see YOU at assessment!

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Image courtesy of billy verdin
This entry has also been posted at jxgomez.com/blog.

That's NOT Okay...

Last week, I posted ‘That’s okay…’ about some positive learning experiences I had with some friends during a recent trip to the mall. Now I'd like to share a few things that were ‘teachable moments’ because of what they teach us to avoid. Don’t worry, names have been changed to protect the innocent and avoid some kind of libel charge:

Understanding your environment is incredibly important:

I haven’t been able to find Bottle Caps anywhere. You know: those sweet-tart kind of candies that have a little fizz in them? We can’t get them where I live, so while we were at the mall, the four of us dropped into Childhood Obesity R Us (a candy shack). But right next to the candy shack (which, by the way, did have Bottle Caps… at an incredible premium) was Carcinogen Crossing (a tobacco shop). That may not have been a problem… except that the smell of the tobacco shop was incredibly overwhelming… it morphed with the sweets smell of the candy shack and created some kind of nasty, hanging malodorous funk that wasn’t at all pleasant. The candy shack wasn't doing very much business, and I can't help but wonder if it had something to do with its neighbor. Who are the candy people trying to reach? Tobacco smokers? Or would vying for a spot near the Lego store have been a better bet?

What does that have to do with churchy stuff? Oftentimes it’s tempting to do something that worked very well elsewhere… in some other environment. But ‘plugging’ that program/idea/method into where we live just won’t be effective because of where we’re situated. We're trying to reach lego-store kind of people next to a tobacco shop... maybe we should try to do something to meet the needs of the people around us in their own context.

A few months ago, a friend of mine posted this link--it's a good example of the need to understand your environment in a ministry setting.

Know your environment.

Simplify:

There was a certain item we were hoping to get. An item so in demand many people want one, but not so currently ‘have to have it’ that anyone should be sold out. Checking was done about which stores should have this item in stock. One didn’t. Another of the same chain didn’t. A third store did, but was unable to provide the right kind of service… so a purchase was made to get the item all the others were supposed to have and a walk commenced to one of those other stores to get the rest of the process taken care of. (I’m being purposefully ambiguous, sorry for how awkward that paragraph was).

It was a lot of work and frustration for something pretty easy—especially when you understand the money was going to be spent on this item… and it was going to bolster the sales of one store or another. If people would have just done what they said they would, a very happy customer would have been had. Instead, they were left with a customer who wasn’t so much ‘happy’ as ‘finally taken care of’.

I wonder what we do that could use some simplifying; what we do that is overly frustrating and inconvenient for a reason that made sense on paper or in theory but has no practical benefit...

Just Be Who You Are:

One of the stores we stepped into was kind of like the Apple Store’s socially awkward distant cousin. In fact, it was meant to compete with an ‘Apple Store’ kind of draw. But something happened: the culture of the parent company and the culture of this particular store didn’t match. Somehow in the push to ‘be like the other guys’ this brand, in my own uneducated opinion, was suffering. The people were only focused on selling a product, not representing company, brand, or offering experience.

There’s nothing wrong with competing. There’s not anything wrong with seeing how your competition is doing something and besting them at it. But trouble comes when we sacrifice who we are in order to compete with some other ‘growing concern.’ It’s very doubtful the ‘growing concern’ grew by laying identity on the altar of success.

So, who wants to go to the mall with me this weekend?

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This entry was originally posted as 'Mall Fail' at jxgomez.com/blog.
Image: violator3

Planning with Vision, Foresight & Faith

I recently received this from a friend in the CoachNET program and wanted to pass it along to you. It is good stuff.

One of the requirements of my role is to schedule events 9-12 months ahead of time.

The romantic in me doesn't like knowing exactly where I'll be and what I'll be doing a year from now. I'd like to think that because I'm growing and changing constantly, what I'll be doing next year is unpredictable.

The reality is we all need to plan ahead. And planning takes vision, foresight, and faith.

We need vision to know what we should be accomplishing.

We need foresight to predict the conditions that will effect our work.

We need faith to push us past our predictions and give us hope in fulfilling our vision.

Here's some questions I use in planning:

Vision

Vision is a picture of the preferred future. Our role in working toward that vision should flow out of how God has called and gifted us (Eph 2:10).

How would you describe your core calling, and your unique gifting?

What have you accomplished this past season that directly flows from your calling and gifting?

If you were to live more fully out of your calling and gifting how might your activities be different?

Looking forward, how would you describe what God is calling you to accomplish?

Foresight

Foresight is predicting what resources will be needed (Luke 14:28ff) and what problems may spring up along the way (Prov. 22:3).

What resources (people, money, know-how) are needed to accomplish your vision?

What obstacles might get in the way?

What might an "aggressive-yet-realistic" plan look like?

Faith

Faith is seeing things from God's perspective, even when they are not evident to us (Heb 11:1). Faith allows us to transcend what's humanly possible (Matt 17:20).

What in your plan requires God's intervention?

What "mountains" might God want moved in this next season?

In what ways do you need to step out with more faith?

How do you see vision, foresight and faith interacting in your planning?

Originally provided by Creative Results Management.

That's Okay

The other day, my wife, Sarah, and I went along with our next-door neighbors on a road trip toward Philadelphia. We didn’t have any particular agenda other than to enjoy the King of Prussia mall and celebrate with Dan (our neighbor) when he finally procured a new iPhone—a special reward for kicking the nicotine habit. But while we were there participating in North American consumerism, I was struck by the way a few places did business and how some of the principles which seemed to drive positive experience (and those that brought about a negative experience) have a great deal of value to those of us pursuing relevant and engaging ministry.

So, here are four positive principles I caught on our little journey—I’ll post some of the more negative ones later:

Accept that People May Come with No Intention to 'Buy [In]' to Anything: Let them browse.

One of the first in-mall stops we made was at Tiffany's.

I am an unemployed minister and my wife is a part time administrative assistant...let’s just say we’re not rolling in the dough.

Dough is something you need to buy most of the stuff at Tiffany’s and I think it was obvious that Sarah and I aren’t really ‘Tiffany’s’ kind of people. Something that struck me was the level of comfort the staff had with a group of four people who came in just to look around. They understood that people would come and go having not bought anything. There were no high-pressure sales techniques, but there also wasn’t any sense that we were some kind of nuisance. We were welcome even though no one was going to close a sale off of us.

I would guess they were okay with us taking up space because the good folks at Tiffany’s know that if we’re going to buy something, it may not be on the first or second or third visit. I would also guess they know that what they offer isn’t for everyone. There will always be those who come in and leave without making any kind of commitment.

There are times we’re driven to ‘make people buy’ what we’re selling—our vision for the future or some little project. Accept that people may come to see you burn with passion, they may enjoy what you say, they may even like what you have to offer… but that doesn’t mean they’re going to buy. And that’s okay.

Understand that Different People Have Different Expectations: Not everybody will like/approve of/applaud what you’re doing.

I really enjoy Apple products. I like seeing other people who use a MacBook while at a coffee shop and talking about their ‘Mac experience;’ I enjoy discussing the latest and greatest innovation headed our way… and I especially enjoy spending time in an Apple Store. When we finally made it to the Apple Store, the place was packed. I had to squeeze in past people and was struck at the kind of noise a bunch of people can make in a small area. AND I LOVED IT. It was part of the experience. Getting hands-on with products, asking questions, considering options… in a place where each aspect of the shopping experience is designed to be exactly the way it is (it didn’t seem anything was ‘accidental’ about layout, service, or care). Again, I loved it.

But it was a little too much for my wife and our neighbor friends. For people who are unfamiliar with ‘the brand’ it likely seems chaotic and overwhelming. For people who prefer to browse quietly or anonymously, the Apple Store would be a little scary. Those people may not buy from an Apple Store… and as of yet, I don’t see Apple changing their stores to try to reach them—they have other points-of-sale which will allow more private people to engage the brand in another way: online, over the phone, or through retail partnerships. Not everybody enjoys an Apple Store, and Apple’s okay with that.

When it comes to churches, not everyone will enjoy your environments (too big, too small, too noisy, too quiet…)—but hopefully they will help you reach your focus group; are you okay with that?

Do One Thing and Do it Well: We don’t have to major in every experience.

Next to the Apple Store was the Bose store.

Know what Bose does? Sound.

That’s it.

The only thing you can buy at Bose is sound stuff. Sound components for home theater systems, speakers for computers, audio hookups for mp3 players, even whole-house systems. But it’s all sound related.

They believe quality sound enhances just about everything—and that the enhancement is worth a premium for quality of workmanship and technology. For entertainment, they promote the premise a high-quality TV needs high-quality sound. And you can’t buy the TV from them.

Sound is what they do.

It seems they feel if they can just get you to experience what they do best, you’ll be convinced of the value of it. (This works, by the way… my wife could care less about sound components, but after experiencing the Bose demonstration, she told me she secretly would enjoy the system we experienced—hefty price tag and all (of course, this is assuming my whole ‘unemployed’ situation were to be rectified)).

We can’t possibly do everything well, and that’s okay… but are we doing something very, very well?

It's Okay to Focus More on Experience than Expediency: Faster isn’t always better.

Our last stop before leaving town for the day was IKEA. Those Swedes know a thing or two about enjoyable, affordable design. They also set up their store on the premise that people need to experience the product before they buy it—so, the unsuspecting shopper is confronted with a seemingly endless supply of showroom displays with each component noting where it’s found for pickup and how much it costs. The veteran IKEAphile isn’t so much ‘confronted’ with the style of the store as much as they have come to savor it.

While we were there, I didn’t notice anybody in a hurry. They walked, browsed, and enjoyed. Now, if someone HAD been in a hurry, I’m sure they could have rushed through without too much difficulty… but much of the experience is wrapped up in not being a slave to the clock. There’s nothing wrong with getting things done in a hurry or maintaining focus, but I think it’s important to make sure we’re not pursuing expediency at the cost of experience. It’s okay to slow down.

Now, of course, these observations only go so far before they break down; not to mention the obvious fact that they’re my observations… so, they come from my [flawed/geeky/strange] perspective. It’s also really important to note that all of this comes with the mindset that these are principles for helping to impact our world with the truth, power, love and presence of Jesus… not for the benefit of institution, bottom line, or brand… which is definitely something we can’t just learn from the mall. And I’m okay with that.

Any thoughts?

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This article was originally written for and posted at jxgomez.com/blog

Jeremiah currently serves as the CMTF secretary; he and his wife will be attending the Wesleyan Church Planter Assessment Center as a potential church planter later this month.

Image Credits:
Apple Logo courtesy of roland
Bose speaker courtesy of Mujitra
IKEA lettering courtesy of Dan Kamminga

Not about you.

Chris Conrad, who serves as the Director of Church Planter Development for the Evangelism & Church Growth Department, sends out a regular e-mail called CP Nexus. [Note: If you don’t receive it, I encourage you to sign up for it by clicking here.] Not long ago, he sent out the following challenge, which I believe impacts planters and established church leaders alike. Enjoy!

John Bishop, pastor of Living Hope Church in Vancouver, WA (www.livinghopechurch.org) made a statement recently that caught my attention:

All the people that go to your church…you didn’t have anything to do with it. Don’t somehow think it’s about you. It’s not. It’s all about God. Only God, period.

To me this statement doesn’t give us an excuse to be lazy when it comes to our missional objectives or initiatives – whether we are planning a community outreach event, rolling up our sleeves in community based ministries or planning weekend services. But what it DOES mean is that Jesus is already at work in the lives of individuals and we are simply joining Him in what He’s already doing.

WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES THIS MAKE TO YOU?

Well, what I hope it does is increase your confidence level and cause you to have some better Mondays and be more consistent at taking a regular Sabbath rest. If He is indeed, already there, already working in people’s lives, then

Yes, we need to roll up our sleeves and work hard;

Yes, we need to engage our culture;

Yes, we need to be out in the community;

Yes, we need to put on the best services or raising up leaders for the best house-churches we can;

Yes, we need to be sensitive to His Spirit guiding and directing us on how to effectively minister to those outside a relationship with Christ;

Yes, people outside a relationship with Him MUST be our focus;

Yes, we MUST be willing to take a bullet for the sake of the unchurched – making courageous decisions and continuing to take risks for the sake of the unchurched;

BUT…

We can also rest securely in the knowledge that the God of the universe is going before us;

We can take time off – following the example He set for us during creation;

We can live with a soul that is well-rested and more clearly focused on Him as opposed to what we are doing for Him.

Thanks, Chris!

Keep pressing on.