If you haven’t checked out the blog of David Trotter I encourage you to do so. David is the pastor of Revolution Church in Long Beach. I have talked to David a couple of times through e-mail and the guy is one of the sharpest and most creative guys I have ever been seen. They have a awesome thing going. He is one of the most outside the box thinkers I have seen.

Check out the Revolution bus. To me that is to cool for words.
Check out their Furniture Store.

They guy comes up with some of the most creative ideas I have ever seen.
Add him to your bloglines and you will challenged and inspired.

I have been getting sick for a few days, well this morning it happened. I feel like crude. To top it off, we have our Adventure 1 Class this morning. A1 is our membership class that all attendars have to take before joining the church. We have a good crowd this morning and I am excited about connecting with every one and hearing their stories as well.

Then tonight it is the DAWGS against Auburn. The road team normally wins this game so that is not for us. I am curious to see how they respond after blowing it against the Gators for yet another year.

The leaves have changed and there is finally a chill in the air so I am excited about the game tonight. This is football weather.

I often tell you about how much I love Canton and Cherokee County. I thank God that He called me here because it fits me like a glove.

Case in point:

At our school board elections this week, The Dog-Faced Gremlin Rick Steiner won a seat on the school board! To me that is awesome! I grew up watching the Steiner Brothers in both WCW and the WWE so I am looking forward to himg giving the Steiner Line to somebody who gets out of line. My next goal is to get him at The Stone.

To read more thoughts, check out Charlie’s post.

Yep, this is my town.

One of the hardest things for a church plant to do is draw musicians. Considering we all want very rocking music, this is a problem. When we started The Stone we had one dude who could play an instrument and that was the keyboard. He was a friend and was only there becaus of our friendship and to help us get up and going.

Now I say without a doubt that our strongest area and area with the most depth is in the area of musicians. All kidding aside, I stand amazed at the talent we have in this area. Not only are we very talented, we are very deep in this area. We have two guitar players that could play anywhere, 3 bass players that could play anywhere, and five drummers that four of them could play anywhere.

We often get asked how did we find the musicians we have and I wish I could give you a great answer but I don’t have one. However I have learned some things in the last year about putting a band together and drawning musicians who can rock the house down.

1.) We have spared no cost in equipment. From day one we have spent a large % of our finances on sound equipment. In 15 months we have probably have bought about $100,000 of sound equipment. Our service we had musicians show up and they stayed when they saw that equipment. Why? Because it showed we were serious about that area.

2.) We hired a GREAT leader. Tim is without a doubt one of the best worship pastors I have ever been around. I thank God every day for him. I am not a musician but our musician’s love him. Far too many worship pastors are good front men but not good leaders. Tim is both.

3.) Great musicians draw great musicians. Your rarely find one musician. You find a group of them. They hang out together and all know other musicians. I found this out and as a non-musician it didn’t make sense. Great musicians would rather play once every 6 weeks with other great musicians and great equipment then play every week with poor musicians and poor equipment.

4.) We let them do their thing. I don’t know music so I let those guys do what they do best and that is rock. Far too many pastors try and tame the band and make them fit some mold. I didn’t think our music would be as heavy as it is but that is the type of musicians we have so that is what we allow them to do.

5.) We have a professional sound guy. From day one we have had a professional sound guy. At first it was my friend Scott King and then we transitioned over to our current guy who actually travels with some of the huge worship leaders of the day. Nothing will frustrate musicians faster then bad sound quality.

6.) We are guitar driven. I know that sound weird but it is true. Most churches who say they are contemporary are keyboard driven. There are very few rock bands that are keyboard driven so when musicians hear this they think it is lame. Most rock bands are guitar driven so when they hear our music they are drawn to wanting to play in the band.

These are all things we learned by accident. Music is SO important to a church plant. This has to be the #1 question I get so I just thought I would share my thought on what I feel has worked for us.

Rock on!

We are 15 months old. That is young. We are in the process of thinking about finally putting a budget together. We have never had one. If money comes in, we spend it. That has pretty much been our approach. But as we started talking about budget, I knew one of the first things I wanted in it was some cash for partnering with our first church plant. The fact is we would have done this whether we have a budget or not but it is cool to know that I have money that will be sitting there for our first plant.

I know who we will be supporting with this money if they decide the timing is right but I have been thinking about how we will choose church planters in the future. The fact is I am very unimpressed with most planters I meet. It has nothing to do with whether I think they will build a church or not but for me, based on my conviction that the church should be for the unchurched, it boils down to whether or not I think these people will reach unchurched people. It is that simple.

So as I was thinking of how we will spend our cash I came up with these simple things:

1.) I have to believe in the planter. Whether or not I believe in him has nothing to do with the call on His life. Very few people believed in us when we started but, since it is our cash, I need to believe he can do it.

2.) I have to believe in the area. I am a church planter therefore I think EVERY area needs a church plant. Every building I walk into I am thinking about how to turn it into a church. But lately, God has really been giving me a burden for some areas. Now the guy I hope we will be supporting, I will support no matter where he goes because I believe in him. But I have two areas right now that God has placed heavy on my heart and one of them I am consumed with. We will plant in one of this areas even if means Tim, Preston, and I go there on Sunday nights and do it.

3.) Their focus HAS to be unchurched. Not just in words but deeds. I want to truly believe they care about lost people and are targeting that group of people.

Not really fool proof and I am sure it will get tweaked but that is where I stand right now. We don’t have much cash but it seems like every one wants a piece. Deciding where it goes isn’t always easy.

Blogging is a pain in the butt. It takes a lot of time, you get blasted for what you say, people get upset, etc. But ONE (I think there are many) benefits of blogging is the networking you are able to do with other planters. In the last week I have met with several planters (many who found me through this blog), have talked to several planters by phone, and have chatted with a couple through e-mail.

It is awesome that God allows us to be there for those that need to chat and it awesome to have someone there when you need to plant. When I planted in Iowa, I knew NO ONE. I had never felt so alone and it was very hard. Blogging is a great way to connect with people who are doing what you are doing and have a passion for it.

I just found out Granger has two one day church planting conferences planned for next year. When I was starting RSC I couldn’t find a church planting conference. It looks very good and I probably will be checking out the March 20th one.

Check it out here.

We decided today that we need to hold two Christmas Eve services due to space issues. The place we are meeting in holds about 600. We have never done two in one day so I am like a kid in how pumped up I am. For Easter this past year we did a Saturday night and a Sunday morning but this is a back to back. Should be cool.

Michael took my gig at West Ridge Church and is now planting Oak Leaf Church in Cartersville, Ga. C’Ville is THE place to plant in NW Georgia in my opinion. Anyway, he posted on his blog about churches starting and having a lifespan where they will close down one day from the start. It was an interesting thought to say the least.

Go check it out here and post your thoughts. I think it could be a good discussion.

I have had the start of this thought in my backpack account for months. Today Ben (who has one of my favorite blogs) posted about the tears, burnout, and stress that the wive’s of church planters go through.

His exact words were:

Most Church Planter’s wives are in tremendous pain. Tears streaming down their faces from the emotional, spiritual, and physical exhaustion of starting a new work.

I have seen this and I couldn’t agree more.

However I feel that this is a result of us as church planters putting our wives in position’s they sould not be in. It is that plain and simple.

I am prepared to get BLASTED with this post that is why I have waited so long to post it but please realize that I am not trying to be a mean with what I am about to say but this is a huge problem and it needs to be fixed.

I am in my second church plant (and last), I have been in full-time ministry since I was 20 (I’m now 29) and I have to say DeAnna has never went through this or experienced it and it is because I made some choices early on in my ministry.

1.) God did NOT call my wife to pastor this church. DeAnna is 100% behind what I do. She could not imagine doing anything else with our lives BUT I pastor and lead this church not her. There is no reason for her to feel the pressure or stress that comes along with doing what I do. She doesn’t have to give me advice on every decision that the church makes. She is my wife not the other pastor of the church.

2.) She doesn’t need to know every thing that happens. DeAnna and I talk a lot and we talk about the church a lot, however I do not tell her every thing. There are things she doesn’t need to know because it will change the way she looks at situations, people, or events. If she knew what people have said to me or have done to me, it would cause her to get bitter and angry. She doesn’t need to know every thing.

3.) She doesn’t have to be at every thing. Being married to me is rough. Besides being married we have two wonderful children. They are a full time job. She attends what she wants too or what we feel would be good for her to be at but she does not attend every thing the church does. There is no need for that and all that does is burn your wife out. The church needs to know she has other responsbility then just them.

4.) I am VERY outspoken about complaining to my wife. In our membership class and from the stage I have made it very clear that if you have a complaint about the church or me you better not go to my wife with it. That is what cowards do and we need to let our church know she is not the complaint department.

5.) She serves where she feels called. Early in my minstry I made my wife play the good pastor’s wife. Not anymore. I only expect of her what I expect of every other member of Ridge Stone. She must serve somewhere. For the first 9 months she led our preschool ministry. When she was ready to quit and turn it over to someone else, she did. She now serves in there once a month and leads a bible study for mother’s of preschoolers.

6.) I don’t dump all my problems on her. The reason your wife hates ministry is because she sees and hears that it is tearing you apart. All she hears is the negative stuff and because of her love for you, it upsets her. She doesn’t need that.

7.) I don’t cheat on her with the ministry. Most pastors are having on an affair on their wife with the church they pastor. This might not be popular but I would let all of Canton die and go to hell before I allowed my wife to grow bitter and stressed in her feelings for God. I work a lot of hours. I leave the house at 5 in the morning and I usually am not home until about 6:00 p.m. but when I get home, it is time for her and the kids. I talk ministry all day, I don’t want to or need to talk it with her.

8.) She loves where we are at. If DeAnna wasn’t happy, we would leave. She knows that. That is important to me. I have had several job offers lately that I didn’t accept (I’m here until I die, I hope) but if I would have she would have killed me because she is happy here. That is important to me and she knows it.

9.) I don’t put financial pressure on her. Church planting is hard and the pay stinks. Of course she lives by guidelines when it comes to spending but when things are tight I don’t pressure her or make her feel guilty in this area. She has not worked since we have had kids and that has been fine. God called me to plant a church, God called her to be a mother.

10.) I date my mate. We make time for each other. No matter what is happening in our lives, we make time for each other. It might be sitting around the house after the kid are a sleep but we spend one on one time with each other no matter what. You need to make time for you wife. I tell my church all the time, “If you don’t make time for your spouse, someone else will.”

11.) I made sure she felt called. We had a lot of discussions on this matter. Just as God called me here, He called her. She has a different role but she has the same call. That is so important. I know that I know this is where God would have us to be and part of that call is because she feels the same way.

12.) I protect her. Under NO circumstances will I allow someone at church to hurt her. You haven’t see redneck until you see how I will react. I will not allow her to be attacked, I will not allow her to be taken advantage of, I will not allow her to be put in a bad position, etc. She knows that.

Church planter, listen to me. Your wife is the most important thing in your life. You have the duty to make sure she isn’t feeling stressed, pressured, or bitter about church planting.

I meet with church planter’s and their wives all the time and I am amazed at the ready to quit attitudes of most wives.

Ladies, know your role as well. Remember God called you to be a help mate to your husband, not run the church.

I am so passionate about this topic. I could not do what I do without my wife. She is my anchor and I will do whatever it takes to keep her from feeling what most planter’s wives feel.

You should do the same for your wife.