Our local association, North Central Mission Center hosted Thom Rainer for a conference today. He taught on the 12 trends that are changing the church and this will be his book that will be out in the fall of 06. I was impressed with Rainer and the “numbers” he threw out but I have to admit the conference seemed all over the place to me. The “12″ things (which I can’t list because I don’t take notes) seemed like common sense and some even seemed like a stretch to me. I could care less about anything that doesn’t help me reach unchurched people and continue to build RSC. That is my focus. Therefore I like very practical things. This conference didn’t give me anything real practical that I could take back to my people and put into practice. Another thing I found funny was how “cutting edge” our association pastors thought Rainer was. They were loving it and him.

Our association is full of older pastors but I will give them props on church planting. They allow us to do it. We currently have 6 church plants so my hat is off to them there. We are probably the most extreme plant they have and it is funny to see the other pastors around me. We run more then all of them but about 3 and they don’t really know what to do with me. But they are cool and always trying to make a connection. For that I appreciate them.

The best part of the day was I got to hang with my buddy and make fun of everyone.

I found out today that it is common knowledge that every one should blog but CEO’s. I didn’t know that but I am understanding it more and more. You could call the Lead Pastor the CEO of the church and I can see where blogging shouldn’t be done by pastors. I don’t hide the fact that I blog from my church. BUT I have had several church people find it and try and read between the lines on things I write. On the other hand I have several church people who read it and e-mail great responses from it. I also have had people in the community read it and take things out of context. I think when you lay things out in a public arena this will happen. The goal of my blog is to give my thoughts on church planting and very little else.
So, my question is does it do more harm then good for Lead Pastors to blog?

I am a very competitive person. Matter of fact it is a major flaw on my part. I am so competitive that I will not play basketball with the guys of our church because I will end up losing my temper.
My competitive nature is what drives me. I love to prove people wrong. When we started RSC people thought we wouldn’t make it. They pointed to a church plant failure a year before we came as proof that this area couldn’t handle a church plant like us. My competitive nature drove me to strive to make this thing work.
So sometimes it is good. Other times it is bad.
I am not proud of this but I find myself being competitive against other church plants in our area. Let me say this, I am glad they ALL are here and they ALL need to be here but my flesh takes over and I want to make sure we are the “best.” That is wrong.
I truly feel I have a kingdom mentality and I want them to succeed but I have really been convicted lately of not rejoicing enough when I hear of other plant’s successes. In my mind I always explain away why they have seen success.
Let me encourage you not to let this happen to you. I think (I hope it isn’t just me) that this is something that all planters at one time or another struggle with but we need to make sure we are checking our heart on this issue constantly.
We are all on the same side and I need to remember that.

We are starting a new series this week called iGod and it is on the trinity and how it impacts our lives. That is not your normal subject in church life so I have had to dig deeper in my studying and finding of information. Then on top of that, I have to take a subject that is hard to explain to most mature believers and make is easy for a church where over 70% of the people were unchurched before finding us. So I have really studied a whole lot more then normal this week and man I forgot how much I enjoy digging in God’s Word. It is sad but as a pastor of a new church sometimes I spend my time doing a lot of good things that keep me away from doing the great thing of digging in God’s Word.
It has been fun this week to put off the good things and focus on the great thing.

I was flipping through the channels and came to our local channel which has the local church services on it. Well, one of our denoms (yes, we are part of one but we don’t brag or even talk about it. ) larger churches was on. They came on all the time and I stop and see what they are doing and remind myself why I started RSC. Well they were in revival and they had a young pastor on from south Georgia who has become one of the GBC golden boys. I don’t know him but I have seen his mug plastered on a bunch of the conferences coming up. So I stopped to watch him and he was preaching on “standing firm,” “contending for the faith”, yada, yada, yada.

To be honest I was kind of digging him. He talked about the fact that he had no seminary training (bonus points to me), and how he had never pastored until he took over this church in south Georgia and he was just going on and on and it was interesting to hear their story. Then out of the clear blue he says: “The reason God has blessed and we have seen folks saved is because of soul-winning (I love that word) and because we have stuck to the old paths. He then went on to talk about driving around town with Dr. so and so and being informed about a new SBC church plant in town that was “supposed to be growing like wildfire.” He then says, “I hear the pastor wears flip-flops on stage.” Hello!!!! It was obvious he was talking about us! He went on and on about the world’s methods and how “even the mormons can draw a crowd, does that mean God is blessing?”

I admit I have a pretty big ego so I was flattered he thought enough about us to preach against us BUT give me a break, that is what is being called revivals nowadays???

And they wonder why we do very little with the demon…I mean denom.

Really no point to the story but I thought it was funny.

Anyone who knows me, knows I am a Fellowship Church freak. Much of what we do is modeled after them. So when I started blogging, I fell in love with Terry Storch’s blog.
Today he hit it out of the park again with a post on balancing ministry and marriage. It is a must for all planters as we often have affairs on our wives with our church plants. To read the article click here.

Why is it I can sit on the balcony overlooking the ocean with the breeze in my hair and read my Bible for hours yet at home I have to often force myself to do it?

Van is packed. We set out early in the morning for the beach. I am so looking forward to seeing Ashlyn’s face when she sees the beach for the first time. I hope to do some non-thinking blogging while I am down there but I will see if I have the time.
For those of you who read this blog, thank you. I can’t believe anyone comes here to read what I have to say. I would appreciate your prayers this week. Pray that God gets me refreshed to get back in the fight. We have some HUGE things coming up and I want to be ready to go.

C-ya!

Today was the first day of my first vacation in several years. We actually leave to go out of town Tuesday evening and we are so looking forward to getting away. It was amazing how refreshing just having a day with nothing to do where I could actually not even think about the upcoming Sunday was. I went to the office for a split second this morning and they were starting staff meeting and I was tempted to stay for a while. They made me leave and I then hung out with pastor friends. The ministry is hard and it was awesome to just hang out and not worry about all the stuff I had to do this week. I truly do love the church I pastor but I needed a break. It is wild how just having one day already has made ready to reenter the fight.

Bruce Johnson has a great post on the difference between teachers who lead and leaders who teach. There is a difference. One is not better then the other but the two can often lead to different results. I think I tend to be a leader who teaches. I’m not the best teacher (or leader for that matter) in the world. Matter of fact I think that is one of the reasons we spend so much time working and preparing for the whole service from music to staging to sermon in order for it to be one tight unit. Many of the things we do cover up my lack of teaching ability. I go back and listen to the service and I have very unimpressed but when taken in live and all the other elements are added I think it is at least decent.
Anyway I think he is right that we need to spend time developing in the area we are weakest. I lead and I spend the majority of my time leading our staff where they can lead the church however, I have made it a priority to listen to different preachers every week to learn from them. As the church grows my teaching must grow.
Anyway, which are you? A leader who teaches or a teacher who leads?