Church Planting

for those who asked, here's the notes from my seminar at Skeek:

Church Planting

[I shared several things in this seminar about my personal experience in being a part of the church plant to Denton that will not translate into these notes. If you are interested in my personal experience and the ways in which I saw God move and work, I'd love to share with you, please ask me!)

1st Point:
Church planting is just like a multiplication of a small group, but more difficult. The emotions, fears, relational difficulties, faith and excitement that you feel when multiplying a homegroup or small group are all felt when you are part of church plant. You have to get used to new leadership, acquainted with new teamates, follow a new vision, and do new things with both multiplications and church planting. The difference with church planting is that there is the added stress of moving to a new city away from your support system and friends and family. You have to find a new job, a new place to live, adjust to new roomates, figure out where to buy groceries, where to get your car fixed and everything else, along with trying to form a new small group and reach out to the lost. I will say that I don't feel very qualified to speak about church planting, as my experience has only been playing a minor role in one plant. I have been through several homegroup multiplications though, and from the shared expereinces of those and the church plant, I have some thoughts on what it takes to successfully multiply, both your small group and church.

1 Corinthians 9:24
- our goal for everything we do in our small groups and churches is not just to run... we aim to win.

Part A: 3 things that can kill your multiplication:

1. Poor team relationships
- Because a multiplication or plant can be exciting and faith filling, there can easily be too much push toward outreach and organization at the expense of team unity. Comunication between team members becomes only focused on what's going on with the homegroup or church, and not what is going on with the individual.
- This leads to an attitude among team members of feeling like, "no one really cares about me".
To avoid this:
A. spend time working and playing together, have fun with each other
B. purposefully communicate on a deep level often. Ask your teamates probing questions often

2. Expectations
- I believe this is the most efficient multiplication killer
- People always will have expectations, they are unavoidable. People expect a certain kind of music, certain kind of bible study method, certain attitude in the leaders... without realizing it, there are always built in expectations for what the new homegroup or church will look like.
- expectations lead to an attitude of dissapointment, even when a person can't pinpoint what they are dissapointed about. You might hear someone say, "It just doesn't feel right", or "it's not the same".
To avoid this killer:
A. Learn to recognize and confront your own and other's expectations, help people discover the basic expectations they have and learn to deal with them.
B. Spend a lot of time preparing your team before multiplying. Go over the details of what you will be doing and create a vision that is new. (Jatin did this very well with the Denton team)

3. Overemphasis on one area of gifting
- it's easy for the "cause" people to rise to the top and dominate the group's focus and attention. Those who are quieter, more background servants feel out of place or un-needed
To avoid this:
A. take extra care in forming a team with a variety of gifts and strengths
B. Recognize and affirm people often for their service and faith

Part B: 3 Qualities that allow success in spite of the plant killers above

1. Demonstrated Faith
- the key is demonstrating your faith, making it seen.
- without seeing faith come out in your team meetings and activites, people get tired and worn out. They must see that what you are doing is of God, not of man.
- faith is contagious
How do you show faith?
A. Pray together often. People pick up on your faith through how and what you pray
B. Share the word, claim promises
C. Share testimonies often of what God is doing
(We did this a ton at the start of the plant, and we were able to see God provide in amazing ways that streched our faith and confirmed God's prescence with us. We saw jobs provided, living spaces, annointed meetings with key people, people coming to know Christ, all sorts of stuff. The key was that we shared it with each other every chance we got, and in turned strengthened each other's faith.)

2. Proven Character
- key word is proven
- multiplications are difficult enough when you men and women of tried and true character. Without tested character in your leaders, the multiplication killers can easily bring down the plant.
Key areas of character the leaders must have:
A. Handling trials with joy and perseverance
B. Working diligently and thoroughly in all aspects of life
C. Have relationships with others that are strong and deepening
(All are important, but I would especially emphasize the relationships. If either a leader or team member has a pattern of broken relationships it's a red flag for the team. Team relationships are vital for a multiplication to succeed, and the members must have developed the character to overcome relational difficulties and build into each other in spite of conflict.)

3. Skill
- team members must have some basic ministry skills down, you can't "learn as you go" on a church plant
Necessary Skills:
A. Sharing the gospel. In order to reach out effectively at the beginning, you have to spend your time out sharing with people. Your team needs to know how to present the gospel of Christ and be well practiced.
B. Following up with new believers and visitors
C. Discipling growing believers. Your team doesn't have to be discipleship gurus, but does need to have the skill to be able to effectively help another person grow in their relationship with the Lord. (Jatin likes to quote John Maxwell about a leader who has no one following, "he's just taking a walk"). We must be able to point someone to Christ and see that person grow.

Acts 5:38-39: Remember and be reminded that what we are doing in reaching the world is of God... nothing can stand against it.

This is a long post... if you have specific questions let me know.