Lessons from 15 years of planting, preaching, and pastoring.

The “first” words I wish I spoke

2021-07-04T18:06:31+00:00By |Church Plant Lessons 101, Shearing Sheep|

On the journey of planting Damascus Road Church, there have been a lot of "firsts."  There was the first set up, first public service, the first worship set, and the first communion.  There were the first leaders, the first elders, the first converts, the first members, and the first baptisms.  I remember the first "Amen", the first mean email, the first stupid decision, the first confrontation, the first church discipline, even the first people who left.  Then there is the first big move into a new building, the first roots put down, the first "home."  What I don't remember are what the first words preached at our new building were.  I'm sure they are recorded but the fact that I don't remember them means I didn't try to make them memorable. Quite honestly, I don't think I really considered those as a "first", didn't try to make them "special", or [...]

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The “Danger” in Teaching your Kids Scripture

2021-07-04T18:07:36+00:00By |Church Plant Lessons 101, Re:Sermon|

Deuteronomy 6 records, among other things, some important commandments to parents in raising children.   These sacred verses are not the "how to's" of perfect parenting as much as they are a charges from a Father committed to preserving the Word of God as central to the identity of His people.  Moses writes:  "Hear, O Israel:  The LORD our God, the LORD is one.  You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.  And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.  You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.  You shall write them [...]

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God-made vs. Man-Made Boundaries

2021-07-04T18:07:27+00:00By |Church Plant Lessons 101, Re:Sermon|

I haven't found too many sermon series based on the entire book of Joshua.  That could be because, after Joshua 10, most of the narrative reads like 2,500 year old land survey recording the dividing and distribution of the promised land (not the most invigorating of devotional content).   Joshua 15 is no exception. Joshua 15 describes the boundaries surrounding the inheritance allotted to Judah. Within the first 12 verses, the word "boundary" is used 19 times.  Though we may find reading Joshua 15 tedious, the people of Judah listened carefully every precious word as this was the physical description of God's gift to them--every mountain, river, hill, city, was special.  For us, as I preached in Joshua 13, we are again reminded that not only are the portions given by God, but their exact shape and size is determined by God. In other words, we’re not talking about boundaries in [...]

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One resolution for 2011

2021-07-04T18:08:25+00:00By |Church Plant Lessons 101, Note to Self...and Others, Random Thoughts|

After the 365 days of 2010, here are the seven things that make it a "good" year: #1 I love Jesus more #2 I love my beautiful bride more #3 I love my four kids more. #4 I love my friends, and especially my "brothers" more. #5 I love my church more. #6 I love my life more. #7 I love the world less. And I have one resolution for 2011, to glorify God and enjoy Him more as a Son, Husband, Father, Pastor, Brother, Neighbor, and Friend.

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IN or just AT church?

2021-07-04T18:08:45+00:00By |Church Plant Lessons 101, Random Thoughts, Shearing Sheep|

All of us are guilty of talking a lot about what we don’t like about the church, but we don’t often talk about what the church actually is. A common definition in the dictionary describes the church as “a building for Christian worship”.  It's a wonder how anyone might come to this conclusion reading the New Testament description of churches who seem to be without buildings for the most part.   It goes without saying that the church is more than a building, but what "more" means is rarely asked because we assume understanding when we shouldn't .   And even if someone offers an answer,  it’s often colored by  traumatic Sunday school experiences, mean people, weird people,  cliquey people, juvenile legalisms, cheesy music, deathly boring sermons, terrible leaders, and/or meaningless traditions. It ends up being more of a diatribe than a definition. These negative experiences have led to an increasing number [...]

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Four years old & Pregnant

2010-11-07T18:02:51+00:00By |Church Plant Lessons 101, Random Thoughts|

I love Damascus Road.  I look forward to being with them, enjoy laughing with them, serving them, caring for them, and being loved by them.  Damascus Road Church turned four years old this week, on November 4th.  We've seen this newborn baby church grow into a potty trained toddler.  And now, this four-year old is about to do it all over again and launch a new plant in Mt. Vernon.  Amazing.  Humbling.  Crazy. As such, I have spent a lot of time with Jesus this week, listening to him remind me about how wonderful and horrible this journey has been.  In the last four years, I have learned more about God than the previous 32 years combined.  I have also come face to face with my own depravity.  The only way I can even recognize the many GRACES of God is to, at the same time, recognize my own weaknesses, [...]

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CPL#27: Failing the Great Commission

2021-07-04T18:09:02+00:00By |Church Plant Lessons 101|

LESSON #27:  Failing the Great Commission (DON'T DO IT) Currently, we are taking about 20 guys through what we call a discipleship boot camp.  It is a return to what are called “First Principles”, the basics, Christianity 101, the foundation of our faith.  Some might consider our material too simplistic, focusing on “milk” rather than meat.  In the short time that I have been a pastor, I have learned that the basics are where most Christians, and the churches they build, go wrong.  Too often they want to run ahead on meat, only to try and choke down a theological rib-eye their stomachs are not prepared for.  Though they may be able to get some nourishment, most of the meal they have to spit out and thus, end up malnourished.  And though they talk about the glories of big theological steak meals, they don’t in fact grow, and neither do [...]

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CP#26: Faith is like Playing Basketball

2021-07-04T18:09:13+00:00By |Church Plant Lessons 101|

LESSON #26:  How Faith is like Playing Basketball I suck at Basketball.  Growing up I played Soccer, all year, all the time.  And I was good.   I enjoyed playing Soccer from age 5 to age 25, even coached for several years.  After 20+ years of Soccer, I grew sick of it.  As I got older, and my body didn't quite respond as I wanted it to, the sport that once excited every part of my mind and body, now bored me.  It was time for a new sport. I decided to pick up a sport that I enjoyed but struggled with, Basketball.  I am terrible.  I am a great defender, incredible re bounder, but a horrific shot-maker.  If my life depended on making a lay up, let alone a jump shot, I would have died many times over.   Despite that fact that God did not bless me with the skills [...]

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CP#25: When people stay (or should)

2021-07-04T18:09:24+00:00By |Church Plant Lessons 101|

People land and stay at various churches for a myriad of reasons.  Again, some these reasons are very good and others are very bad.  No one can truly judge the motivation of the heart but Judge Jesus, so we'll leave determining the genuine validity of reasons for coming or going with him. I am suggesting that you can stay at a church for the wrong reasons. This blog is not about convincing people to leave their churches, rather, for them to consider why they are there--or why they should be there.  My hope is that, if they are at a healthy church, they will in fact begin to love the church all the more and do more than stay, but in fact commit for the right reasons. All of the wrong reasons to stay at a church can be summarized in two words: personal preferences (PP). Ironically, this is also [...]

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