What Do They Really Think?

In order to build a healthy church that is relevant to the culture around us, it is critical that we take a hard look at what the culture has to say about their experience with Christianity.  We live in a city that is familiar with the church culture.  There are many denominations represented here and it's not uncommon for people to claim a church as their "church home" even if they attend only once or twice a year.  We are discovering, however, that there are groups of people that are disconnected with the current church culture here.  Many of these people are Christ followers that just can't seem to settle into a body of believers.  There are also groups of people in our city that are hungry for a church that is relevant to their lives and their views of what a church should value.  It's safe to say that this current trend is popular in many of our cities.

We then venture over to the people in our culture who have either been burned by the church or see the church as completely irrelevant to their lives.  So the question we find ourselves asking is, "How do you connect the Christ followers who are wanting more in terms of their church experience to the group of people who are skeptical of Christianity?"

David Kinnaman, the president of The Barna group, has conducted an extensive study with 16-29 year olds on their view of Christianity.  In this study, only 16% of non-Christians in their late teens and early twenties said they have a "good impression" of Christianity.  And only 3% of this group showed a favorable view towards evangelicals.

This study also discovered the following perceptions that non-Christians have about Christianity:

87% say we are judgmental, 85% think we are hypocritical, 78% say that we are old-fashioned, while 75% believe we are too involved in politics.

If these statistics don't open our eyes, the following should:

Young churchgoers were asked to give their perceptions of Christianity, and over half of them perceive Christianity to be judgmental, hypocritical, and too political.  And 1/3 say it's old-fashioned and out of touch with reality. 

A common theme that was expressed during this study was that "Christianity no longer looks like Jesus in today's culture."  

After a three-year study was conducted, researchers realized that the perceptions shared by non-Christians and young Christians alike were not based on misinformation or popular views.  The perceptions towards Christianity were more often centered around experiences and personal interactions with Christians.  

As leaders, this study should greatly disturb us.  As church planters, this study gives us great insight into growing a church that is relevant to our culture.  As lead pastors of established churches, this study should give us a new resolve to take an honest look at the perceptions our churches are evoking among young people in our city.  

This culture is looking for change, they are desperate for relevancy and they are hungry to be a part of something that is making a difference in their community.  It's interesting that in this study conducted by The Barna group, the negative perceptions shared were not in regards to people's view of Christ.  Their issue isn't with Christ - their issue is with those claiming to have been transformed by Christ. 

If you are planting a church, you are no doubt asking yourself some of the same questions we are.  "How do we create a church culture that is authentic to our city's culture?"  "How do we tear down the walls of skepticism in our city and present ourselves as relevant and real?"  "How do we cast vision for our church and build a collective purpose with our launch team?"  

It starts with the vision of our churches.  Andy Stanley has been quoted as saying, "Vision leaks."  This is true for established churches and church plants alike.  Our goal is to cast our vision in such a clear and concise way that our people could tell someone in one sentence, without hesitation, what Northpoint's vision is.  The vision of Northpoint is to connect people to Christ and to be devoted to meeting the needs of our community with passion and love.

As church planters, it is vital for us to make our vision very clear from the very beginning.  Proverbs 29:18 sums it up well, "If people can't see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves; But when they attend to what He reveals, they are most blessed." (The Message)

If walls of skepticism are going to be torn down, it must begin with us.  It is going to take action on our part.  If we are going to change the perception that we are judgmental and hypocritical, it is going to be through rolling up our sleeves and proving that we are concerned with what's happening in the lives of those in our community.  It's going to be through opening our doors to people that aren't "like" us.  Skepticism diminishes when we serve with no strings attached.  Taking action and putting our walk where our talk is quiets the notion of hypocrisy.  

We believe God is creating a movement in our community through Northpoint and that movement is to serve anywhere the opportunity arises.  We know that at first the skepticism is going to be high.  People will question our intentions and analyze our authenticity.  We also believe that it is our job as Christ followers to earn the trust of our community.  If perceptions are ever going to change, it is going to have to be intentional on our part.   

Can you just imagine what would happen if it became the resolve of every church to change the perception of Christianity in their communities? When people begin to connect together through serving and meeting needs, a movement ignites.  Walls are torn down and perceptions are changed when we offer ourselves to others with no strings attached.  Our prayer is that today we will have the courage as leaders to make the first bold move towards building a bridge with our brothers and sisters who desperately need to see Jesus with skin on.

Be encouraged today!

It's a God-story

When we began this journey we made a promise to God.  We promised that every step of the way He would receive the glory and the honor for what was happening in our church. 

We recognize more each and every day that the building of Northpoint has absolutely nothing to do with our efforts and everything to do with the power of God at work around us.  God has invited us to take an unbelievable journey with Him, not because we have abilities that He needs, but because through this journey He can continue to bring us to a deeper understanding of our complete dependence on Him. 

There is not a week that goes by that we don’t sit back in utter amazement at how God is opening every door at just the right moment.  We stand in awe at the way He is moving and stirring the hearts of those around us.  Our vision is clear to us and He is enabling us to share this vision with passion and clarity.  Miracles are happening all around us.  These miracles are a direct result of our prayer force and their faithful prayers on our behalf.  This experience has taught us that we will never walk through one day of ministry without a prayer force behind us.  

Romans 4 has been speaking to us lately.  Through this chapter we have been reminded of what it means to follow after God’s heartbeat.  In  Romans 4:2-3, we read “If Abraham, by what he did for God, got God to approve him, he could certainly have taken credit for it.  But the story we’re given  is a God-story, not an Abraham-story.  What we read in Scripture is,  Abraham entered into what God was doing for him, and that was the turning point.  He trusted God to set him right instead of trying to be right on his own.”  (The Message)

At the end of the day, Northpoint is not a Chris & Lynnlee story, it is a God-story.  We pray that we never forget this important truth.  What a privilege it is for each of us to enter into what God is doing for us.  

Romans 4:4 encourages us with this truth -  “But if you see that the job is too big for you, that it’s something only God can do, and you trust Him to do it – you could never do it for yourself no matter how hard and long you worked – well, that trusting-Him-to-do-it is what gets you set right with God, by God.” (The Message)

Can you just feel the power behind these verses?  As a church planter this has got to be one of the greatest verses for Church Planting 101.   It’s not about us!! We’re not building this church.   We aren’t the ones moving in the hearts of the people in our community.  God is at work, and all He has asked of us is that we would jump on board with Him and trust Him to finish what He has started.

Romans 4:18 holds another nugget of encouragement for us.  “When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn’t do but on what God said he would do.”  Has God given you a vision, a promise for your church?  Pastors, it’s time for us to fall to our knees in surrender and allow God to be Lord of our lives, our ministries, our future and our reputations. 

This last one is an especially difficult one to surrender.  For us, we have to keep in check the lies of the enemy that creep upon us in regards to our reputation.  The “what-ifs” try to invade our thoughts at the most inopportune times.  “What if you fail and everyone who believed in you is disappointed?”  “What if someone misunderstands your intentions?”  What if people don’t show up like you hope they will?”  The list is continuous and is damaging to the spirit of Christ within us. 

We must press on with the promise that God will do what He says He will do.  He has given us a promise for Northpoint and He does not intend to fail.  We must stay out of the way and allow God to work in His timing and wisdom.  The best part of embracing Romans 4 and the truths it has to offer is this, the more God moves, the less desire we have to be in control. 

We pray you are encouraged today as you discover God’s story at work around you. 

Be encouraged today!

 

Building a Launch Team

For us, building a launch team has been a challenging experience.  We fall under the classification of a "parachute" church-plant, so we literally dropped into our community with 2 contacts of people who "might" be interested in knowing more about our church plant.  Starting cold turkey on building a launch team has taught us some valuable lessons.  Every day we learn more about how to dissect this challenge of growing a team.

One of the questions we have found ourselves asking over the last few months is, "When do you begin meeting as a launch team?"  Our approach from the very beginning was to get into our community, period!  The first several months we focused on meeting people in any way possible.  We signed our son up for summer sports, joined community affinity groups such as a local mom's clubs (well, at least Lynnlee did), Chris signed on as a substitute teacher in the schools, and we have had more than one "God-appointed" conversation sitting in a local cafe.  It's amazing, when you start walking with your ears open for opportunities to have a conversation with someone, God opens the doors.  We have hosted many dinners in our home with families and have occasionally met families at a local restaurant.

There have been some relationships that we have established that will continue to be just that - a connection with someone in our community.  By taking the time to get to know families in our community, we have been able to identify those who are interested in knowing more about Northpoint, and those who God has placed in our lives simply for friendship and fellowship.  

The challenge for us wasn't getting in our community and meeting people.  The challenge for us came when we had to make the decision of when to begin meeting as a launch team with those people we had identified as potential members.  We had to ask ourselves how long we realistically felt we could continue to meet individually with various potential members before they would lose interest in joining a launch team.  We didn't want to jump too soon, but we also didn't want to stall people.  

The following is what it looked like for us.  We moved to our community in July and focused on relationship building for several months.   Many of our weekends were committed to traveling to other churches to gain financial support and to build our prayer force, so weekdays were very valuable to us.  We spent time in our community working at local coffee shops and restaurants.  We invited people into our home consistently for cookouts and game nights.  We got our kids together with other kids for play dates and sports.  We identified the people who were interested in knowing more about our team and grew those relationships to a deeper level.  We began to plant the seed that we were going to start meeting as a launch team at the beginning of the year.     

At the same time, we were asking ourselves if it would be better to continue to grow our existing relationships and build new ones before venturing out with a new launch team.   For us, the right choice has been to start meeting with the people who want to be a part of our launch team, and fire them up to connect people in their area of influence to our team. was to start meeting as a launch team at the beginning of this year.  We have been meeting with our team every week for two months and are consistently growing in numbers.  Our team is fired up and ready to tell people they know how to get involved at Northpoint.  

Our focus is to build, build, build our launch team.  In his blog, Planting Churches, Doug Foltz,       shares this startling statistic - of 88 churches surveyed, those who, on opening Sunday, started with a launch team of 40 or less had a morning attendance of 142.   Those who, on opening Sunday, started with a launch team of 41 or more had a morning attendance of 340.  That tells us one thing - we must build a strong launch team!  God is opening doors for us to partner with other churches in our city as we build our launch team.  We have learned through some very valuable resources and workshops that successful launch teams are approached with a 360 degree viewpoint.  Our team can consist of many different "types" of people.  Some will be with us permanently and some will be with us for a season until our feet are firmly on the ground.  

The name of the game here is to grow your team!  Look at growing your team from many angles and establish relationships through many avenues.  This is one of the most critical stages of the church planting process, and one of the most rewarding as you meet new people in your community and excitement builds.

Enjoy the journey!

  

Who Holds The Keys?

This has been an incredible week for us.  It never ceases to thrill us when God opens yet another door of opportunity for us to walk through.  

From the moment we began planting Northpoint we have prayed for God to open doors.  We have always believed, and still do, that the only way this baby church is going to see a healthy birth date is if God opens every door of opportunity along the way.  

It's a strange feeling: the moment you find yourself being handed the keys of responsibility for planting a new church.  Your mind reels with endless possibilities and ideas.  You find yourself dreaming of "over the top" strategies and methods of ministry.  Depending on your situation, planting a church offers some freedoms you might not otherwise have while serving in a ministry position in an established church.  There is the freedom to try new things and build your baby church's DNA (after all, nothing has been done from which to draw comparison.)  

The challenge comes when faced with the temptation to build His church in your own power.  It’s easy to hold on to the things that you think are vital to the growth of His church and if you aren’t careful, you try to force open doors that were never meant to be opened.  

In many ways we are much like the little girl who valued her dime store pearls.  These pearls were shiny and beautiful.  Everywhere she went people noticed the pearls around her neck.  One evening, as the little girl got ready for bed, her father came to tuck her in.  With excitement in his eyes, he told her that he had a very special gift for her.  The little girl’s excitement grew until her father asked her for her dime store pearls in exchange for his gift.  Defeated in spirit, the little girl clutched her pearls and said, “That’s alright Daddy, I’ll just keep my pearls.”  For several days this exchange continued between father and daughter.  Until one evening the father walked in to see his little girl crying quietly on her bed.  As he sat down, the little girl lifted the pearls to her father and said, “Here Daddy, if the pearls mean that much to you, you can have them.”  The father scooped his little girl up into his arms and pulled out a beautifully wrapped box.  As the little girl opened her gift, she could hardly believe her eyes.  Tucked inside this tiny box was a strand of the most beautiful freshwater pearls the little girl had ever seen.  

If you are planting a church, you are faced with the challenge of growing a church that will be healthy and thriving when launched.  If you aren’t careful, you will find yourselves holding onto things that are “good” while God is standing on the sidelines trying to give you the “best.”  You can’t settle for what’s easy and convenient.  Sometimes it will hurt to let go of the things you cherish.  There may be people who leave your team before you open your doors.  There may be ideas you have to table because as a church you aren’t ready to see those ideas become a reality.  You will have to allow others to step in and take responsibility for things, instead of keeping everything on your plate.  

It can be so very easy to hold on to the keys of responsibility. That is, unless you've experienced first hand what can happen when you relinquish the keys to the master locksmith.  

We are discovering more each day that our efforts will always pale in comparison to what takes place when God divinely intervenes on our behalf.  

Relationships are being built and partnerships within the community are being developed.   One of the greatest challenges we face is giving up the keys to our life, and just as importantly, the keys to our church, to the master locksmith.  There is only one set of keys and the choice is ours.  Who is going to hold them?

It's Your Move

One of the greatest challenges for any church planter is moving forward into uncharted territory.   We recently took inventory of all that God has shown us and accomplished since we moved to Beaumont to plant a church.  His hand has been so evident and He has opened so many doors for us.  There has been time spent on our knees as we poured out our hearts to God, asking for His favor and anointing.  We have burned the midnight oil many times as we strategize and internalize the vision we feel God has placed upon our hearts.  We have prayed the prayer of Solomon when he pleaded, "Give me a God-listening heart so I can lead your people well, discerning the difference between good and evil."(1 Kings 3:9) 


We also took inventory of how the enemy has tried to thwart our efforts.  He has tried to discourage us. He has tried to lead us towards complacency and has tried to focus our attention on the challenges of the journey ahead of us.  


As we worked through our inventory list a fresh excitement began to build within our souls as we once again grasped the reality that God is in what we are doing.  He is moving in mighty ways.  He is opening doors that seemed impossible to pass through.  Oh, what a mighty God we serve!  Our inventory also served as a reminder that God is expecting us to do our part.


The question that is in front of us from the moment we wake until the moment we lay our heads to sleep is, "What are we going to do with this new church plant today?"  We recognize more and more everyday that the most effective card Satan can play against us right now is the complacency card.  (We will be bold enough to say that it's very likely the most effective card he can play against you as a church planter, as well.)   


The tasks that lie ahead of us as church planters can often seem daunting.  The weight of responsibility is heavy.  God has given us the incredible and exciting task of building His church and furthering  His kingdom in our communities.  There are relationships to build, launch teams to motivate, buildings to renovate, communities to be reached and spiritual disciplines that must not take a back seat in our list of priorities. 


You may be fighting the temptation to pull the blanket over your head and declare  - "I'll tackle this another day."  

Here's the reality - it's your move.  If you are a church planter, you have walked behind enemy lines.  You are on the front lines fighting for something that isn't even in existence yet.  Your dreams for your church have yet to be fully realized.  You are walking in the land of the unknown.  So what are you going to do about it?  


What are you going to do once you've poured your heart out to God?  What's next once you've strategized and laid out your vision for your church?  Our prayer is that you are going to MOVE!  Get out into your community.  Reach out to the schools in your city.  Build your launch team and stay in touch with them throughout the week.  Be their greatest encourager.  Be available to them.  Stay current with social media (this takes almost daily time and effort.)  Plan ahead - build your calendar (or in church planting terms... your timeline) and work it!  Know what's coming and over-prepare.  Anticipate the hurdles as you work towards your block parties and your community events leading up to launch.  Have Plan B in place.  Above everything else - just MOVE.  Don't fall into complacency.  Begin your day with a plan  - even if your plan is to work at the local coffee shop for the day.  By the way, three of our launch team members are a direct result of time spent in the coffee shop praying for God-appointed conversations.


Everything you are doing right now matters.  Launching your church is exciting and an obvious accomplishment that we all want to experience.  But remember that God is moving right now during the process of building your church and leading your team towards launch.  2012 holds seemingly endless possibilities for our churches.  Don't let this year get away from you.  Seize every opportunity God gives you and look for the opportunities that He might be placing right before you if you'll only open your eyes to see them.  


He has called you to a mighty work - now it's your move.  What are you going to do about it?


Be encouraged today!

Building an Effective Website for Your Church Plant

From the very beginning of our journey we felt it was critical that we have a website up and running, even if at first it was bare bones.  Our good friend Tommy Bailey, who owns Collision Media, has worked with us  extensively to help us develop social media outlets that work for this leg of our journey with the church plant.  Tommy and his team at Collision Media have shared with us some very helpful guidelines when building your church website and we'd like to pass those on to you. 

WHAT ARE THE TOP 10 MISTAKES CHURCHES MAKE WHEN BUILDING A WEBSITE

1.  Not keeping it simple.

a.  Your website needs to be simple.  Think about the most visited website in the world, Google.  When you visit Google.com you have one option, and that’s it.  You don’t need to under simplify your website, but your potential website visitors want simple instructions on where to find information.

2.  Focusing on features rather than content

a.  Church leaders often get caught up in adding the latest and greatest features to their website (Twitter feeds, live streaming, blogging, etc.) at the detriment of focusing on the most important content that your website users will primarily require.

3.  Focusing on design rather than content

a.  Church leaders often get caught up in creating a website that simply looks pretty at the detriment of focusing on the most important content that your website users will primarily require.

4.  Not thinking through sustainability when putting together your website.

a.  Consistently updating your website is a discipline, and it’s not easy.  When building your website, make sure your are thoughtful about what you and your team can continue to update on a continual basis.

5.  Not putting your times and directions front and center on your website.

a.  This is one of the most common mistakes on a church website.  The number one thing a user wants to know is where you are, and when your services start.  When you church has launched make your times and directions very apparent on your homepage.

6.  Using Flash technology

a.  Flash is a technology that is going the way of the buffalo, it’s dying.  It doesn’t work on most mobile devices and it consistently has security issues.  When working with your web developer make sure they don’t use Flash, or if they do, make sure it’s minimal.

7.  Using auto-play

a.  Auto-play is at the top of the list of annoying things your website can do.  When a user loads a page they don’t want your webpage to automatically play a video or audio.  Give them the option to start and stop media on their own.

8.  Not incorporating online giving

a.  Online giving is easy with services like PayPal, MinistryGive, and many others.  There’s no reason your website can’t accept online giving right from the start.

9.  Using “your nephew” to create your website.

a.  We’ve heard this story many times.  Use a professional to develop your website, not your teen nephew who’s taken an HTML class.  You don’t have to spend a fortune to have a great website, but it’s an important investment, so choose someone who knows what they are doing.

10.        Bad photography

a.  You’re probably not a photographer, and just because your friend bought a new fancy camera doesn’t mean she’s a photographer either.  Hire a professional to take a few quality photos of your leadership and church.  Remember, most people who visit your website don’t know you - your photography may be their first impression.

WHAT IS THE #1 PRIORITY CHURCHES SHOULD CONSIDER WHEN BUILDING THEIR WEBSITE

Keep your website simple.  This doesn’t mean that your website can’t be robust and feature rich, but simplicity and organization of your content is important both for you and for your visitors.

• For you:  You’re working at a church, which is a lot of work, and rarely do church leaders have time to consistently update more than a few sections of their website.  There’s nothing worse than an out of date website.  Sustainability will help you in the long term, and ultimately create a better communication strategy for your church.

• For your website visitors:  You have around 7 seconds for a visitor of your website to decide to continue looking for the information they want, or to leave.  Keeping your website simple and organized is the best way for your visitors to find the information that they need.  Most importantly, make sure your times and directions are easily found on your homepage.

CHECK OUT THE LINK BELOW TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE SERVICES OFFERED THROUGH COLLISION MEDIA:

http://collis.in/tw06Qc

If You Say So

"If you say so, I'll let out the nets." (Luke 5:5)  This scripture hit me square between the eyes this past week.  It reminded me that timing is everything when it comes to building a launch team.  Over the last 5 months we have been focusing heavily on building relationships and connections in our community.  God has opened many doors for us to meet people who are interested in knowing more about our church.  Starting in January we will be meeting with our Launch Team in our home once a week to build the foundation for the months leading up to launch.  

Building a launch team from scratch has been such an exciting adventure.  We've learned the value of patience and transparency when building relationships and connections in our community.  When we meet people the first time (and often the second and third time) we are very intentional about spending this time getting to know them, finding out their interests, hearing about what they do for a living and where they have come from.  We never want to give the impression that we are in our community solely to build a church.  We are in our community to be in our community, plain and simple. God has called us to this community and we want to help make it better in any way we can.  The first way to do this is to KNOW our community.

With that said, we have known that the time was quickly approaching us when we were going to have to ask the "BIG" question - "Will you join us on this adventure?"  I've been wrestling with the timing of our "BIG ASK."  I didn't want to damage any growing relationships by being to "pushy," and yet the reality is that we have to build our team. 

That's when Simon's words in Luke 5:5 resonated with me.  I'm sure he was tired of doing the same thing over and over again with no results - throw the net in, pull the net out, no fish.... throw the net in, pull the net out, no fish....  

Now Jesus shows up and says, "Push out into deep water and let your nets out for a catch" Luke 5:4). Simon's response is remarkable- "Master, we've been fishing hard all night and haven't even caught a minnow.  But if you say so, "I'll let out the nets" (Luke 5:5). If you say so....

Timing is everything.  Simon and his buddies had been fishing all night with no results, but when the Master said "go" it made all the difference in the world.  The fish were ready to practically jump into the nets.  

As church planters, we must always be ready to "go" when God says "go."  If you are like us, you have researched methods, you have developed your own strategy and are working through that.  But don't ever underestimate the power of going when God says "go."  We must be so in tune with Him that when He leads us we are ready to move.  

As for us, God is saying "go" in regards to asking the BIG question.  We have built relationships and connections and now it's time for us to ask those we have connected with to join us on the adventure of a lifetime.  We know that as we put our nets out God is going to fill them to overflowing time and time again.   He is going to build our launch team, He is going to build our church and most importantly, He is going to build His kingdom.  

He is building your church too!  He wants to use you and stretch you.  He wants to show you His power in miraculous ways.  He wants to open doors for you in unexpected ways.  Just get ready to put out your net as soon as He says so.

Be encouraged today!