Yeah, if we can do it, you can too…

99% of the time I meet with a church planter on Friday mornings. We get calls practically every week from a church planter who has heard the good, bad, or ugly of The Stone. I always tell them they I am afraid they are going to be greatly disappointed after they meet with me but if they are willing to drive here, I am willing to buy breakfast and tell them every thing we have done wrong.

It kind of makes me laugh because I can tell you the questions they are going to ask before we get started and I feel bad as I look at their faces turn very quickly to being unimpressed.

Questions every one asks and my answers that leave them unimpressed:

1.) What was your budget the first year?

We didn’t have one. Matter of fact, we still don’t. We have thought about getting one but we just haven’t yet. I think it is good to have some guidelines but in the first 2 years, I knew we had a lot of stuff we needed and knew we had to be flexible and be ready to spend when we found good deals. To be honest, a budget was something we thought about. We didn’t how much was going to come in so when it came in, we spent it. 18 months in, we are still doing this. We will probably put one together before we turn 2.

2.) Seriously, how did you pay your bills? You had to have a budget of some kind?

We paid our bills when the money came in and seriously we don’t have a budget. Can I get a witness Tadd?

3.) How did you pay to have staff?

We didn’t. They worked for free. They raised their own support and quit their jobs and lived by faith.

4.) How many mailers have you done?

None. We didn’t have the money when we started and we have just never done one.

5.) How did you raise so much money?

Good question. We didn’t. We raised about $7,000 and I borrowed $25,000.

6.) What is your assimilation plan?

Another good question. Ain’t got one. What do you guys do?

7.) What is your small group structure?

Hmmmm…well…really….it changes about every month and we are not sure but we have a bunch of people in them.

By this time they are so unimpressed that they are looking at me like I’m an idiot. I normally can sense their frustration by this time so I then look them in the face and tell them something along the lines of this: “Listen, I am sorry I haven’t been more help. But I want to tell you that if you have a passion for lost people and you can relate to them, God will use you to build a church. AND if God can use me and my staff, then you should be encouraged because He can without a doubt use you.”

I hope it helps them but if not, at least they got a good breakfast.