My family and I just returned from a trip to Disneyland.  We probably walked a marathon as we traversed the "magic kingdom".  Not too much has changed since I first went there nearly 30 years ago. For some things this is good for others it is bad.  The old Swiss Family Robinson House is now the "Tarzan" house because no one has ever heard of that famous family.  The 20,000 Leagues under the Sea sub is now the Nemo sub...and still just as lame.  Space Mountain is still fun and feels ahead of its time, Star Tours still makes me want to puke, and Pirate's of the Caribbean is still the best ride at the park period!.  A Small World is probably the same for the most part, just a bit bigger.  I wouldn't know because I didn't dare subject my kids to that kind of pain--my guess is they've [...]

LESSON #7:  YOU'LL NEVER FEEL LIKE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING.After people ask my why I wanted to plant a church (read lesson #1), quite often the next question is, "how are you qualified?" This isn't asked directly like this mind you, it is more cryptic like, "where did you go to seminary?" or "where were you a pastor before?".  Early on I was very intimidated by this question because I didn't really know what I was doing.  I became well practiced at answers to match the nature of the question, talking about my double major in biblical studies (which I have but is useless), or the fact that I was an "elder" at a previous church (though I didn't pastor a lick).  The truth is, I tried to convince the pastors who approved me in Acts 29 why I wasn't qualified to lead a church---I thought it was obvious.The [...]

LESSON #6:  THOSE EXCITED MOST QUICKLY EXIST JUST AS FASTWhen your first starting church and you want to determine "how big" you are, you count every adult, child, and dog that is nearby.  No matter what a pastor tells you, numbers do matter in their mind.  They say they don't think about them, but it is incredibly hard not to.  I am not suggesting that numbers mean everything only that they meaning something--not all good somethings either.  With few exceptions, the church grows and the church shrinks.  I never get used to it. I see new faces every week then never see them again.  I want to ask why?  What did I say to tick them off?  Did they not like our building?  Was my sermon too long?  Was our music cheesy, too loud, or just all around lame?  Then there are those few people who, after you scream at them [...]

A lot of young church plants, in an effort to declare their freedom in Jesus, have missed the point entirely.  Mounting their attack against the legalists of the world, they fail to heed to Apostle Peter's warning to, "Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God." (1Peter 2.16). Within the first 6 months of our church plant, we appeared in an article written by the Southern Baptists about our "Bible and Brew" Bible studies and "Poker Nights".  Needless to say, it wasn't a flattering article.  We were simply part of the collateral damage from a larger attack on Acts 29 as a network of beer-lovers.  It didn't stop us from men bringing beer to our Bible studies or from an occassional men's event where we'd gather make our own brew (Rootbeer too!). It did, however, result in [...]

LESSON #4 - HUMOR & MARKETINGWhen we first planted the church we produced some humorous ads to shake things up a bit.  The ads ran the gambit of appropriateness--all of them made me laugh.  We found that they were well received by the non-Christian culture and that Christians completely hated them.  We only mailed out a few one time, but most of the time we left them in the hands of our people to distribute to neighbors, co-workers, and friends as they saw fit.  There were ones that said, "A Church for people who pee" or "Catch up on your sleep, come to church."  All of them were an attempt to break through the walls of misperception about church and church people.  We ran one or two in the paper and posted one on a bus.  The bus company was so impressed they actually made us a free sign to [...]

LESSON #3 - THE SIN OF AUTONOMY..guiltyI probably would have been too prideful to admit this the first year we planted.  The truth is, we live in largely a reactionary culture, or at least we live like we do.  We make many of our decision not because we have determined them as right, biblical, or wise, rather, because they fit what we have already determined is right.  We make decision to avoid bad experiences, little agreements to avoid having a bad relationship again, or any number of other choices to avoid feelings or failures.  All the while, our decision to avoid pain and pursue pleasure, may in fact lead us away from the truth.When we first planted the church, we were certain what we didn't want to be, even if we said different.  Though we had our core values, mission statements, and all that, they were all reactionary in nature.  [...]

I don't know what Jesus feels about facebook, but my guess is that he thinks it is from the devil.  I realize that everyone has their own personal "reconnection" story where their long lost __________ was found.  I still find it curious that people who have hundreds of "friends" don't realize that they actually don't have that many friends, or that the world cares what they had for breakfast, what their frustrated with or looking forward to in the next 30 minutes, or how many ways they can find to make a face to describe their emotions with punctuntion and slashes.  Another incredible phenomena is the false reality that people live with, believing that if an entity, organization, or group exists on facebook, then it has legitimacy.Those little irritations pale in comparison to facebook's ultimate contribution to the world--it has become the passive aggressive person's best friend.  While we'd like [...]

LESSON #2 - YOU HAVE TO LOVE JESUS MORE THAN YOU LOVE PEOPLE.I've heard it said that you cannot love God without loving people.  I couldn't disagree more.  I don't believe you can love people unless you love God, more accurately, unless you know God's love as seen in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  There is a reason why Jesus said the greatest and first commandment was to "Love God".  If we love anything BUT God as first and foremost, we commit idolatry.  We are creatures of worship who replace our "first love" with things like sex and alchohol.  But we also worship our spouses, our children, or some other relationship.  When those relationships begin to give us meaning, hope, purpose, and joy more than our relationship with God, there is a problem.  It is important to love others, but it is secondary to loving God as Jesus [...]

Some day I'll probably write a book.  I don't want to write a book so that I can make a name for myself, but becuase writing is how I process. You ask me a question, I'll respond with a 10 page paper.  It is what I do.  So, in the next few weeks I am going to process online the goods and bads of church planting over the last three years. Who am I kidding, most of the "lessons" we learnthat actually stick are the hard ones.  So, if no one reads this or if everyon reads this, I don't really care...it's cathartic for me.LESSON #1:  IF YOU CAN DO ANYTHING ELSE, DON"T PLANT A CHURCH. Planting a church is the most horrible wonderful thing anyone could do. And I will take every opportunity to tell people NOT to do it.  I used to think that planting a church would be [...]

After all the talk, I finally got my first tattoo.  Until I planted a church I never really considered getting tattoo. In other words, this wasn't an event I have been looking forward to for 15 years.  It seems that tattoos have become a bit more culturally acceptable which has resulted in everyone getting really stupid things permanently embossed on their bodies.  As a high school English teacher, I used to make fun of students who got tattoos, the ones who got their names on their butts, barbed wire on their arms, clovers on their feet, or Betty Boop on their...well.. let's just say that in 10 years it will be "Betty Droop".  People have asked me as a pastor if it is "ok" to have or get Tattoos.  They ask because some argue that the body, "as the temple of the Holy Spirit" should be treated as such and [...]