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Because we cancelled church today due to snow, Cody made this great video to show.

The Catalyst Conference is 10 years old this year. I’ve wanted to go each year since it was started, but this will be my first year. I’m grateful to be able to join the Northstar Church staff on this excursion in Atlanta.

I asked them both at supper tonight at Romeo’s Pizza what they felt like Catalyst’s mission and intent was. (They both attended the conference last year.) One said it was to help church leaders move from legalism to innovation. The other said that the conference challenged leaders to new ideas.

So I’m here in Atlanta for two more days to hear some dynamic speakers and biblical communicators. I’m looking forward to connecting with friends, making new ones and being deeply challenged in my faith and leadership.

On the drive down, I was tracking #cat09 on Twitter (the hashtag for Catalyst), and if you do Twitter, you’ll find some incredible quotes and 140-character reflections on Catalyst by tracking it as well. I tweeted this afternoon, “I’m thinking that Catalyst is gonna be a tweet competition for best quote.” In fact, Twitter could wind up being the Cliff Notes for Catalyst. Someone ought to publish all the tweets for it in a manuscript…

If you’re in Atlanta for the conference, look me up or nudge me on Twitter with a mention (“@journeyguy”). I’ll try to post highlights and reflections over the next few days.

Essential Church?:
Reclaiming a Generation of Dropouts

I’ve tried to show in this series of entries that for us in the church or the campus to do effective collegiate ministry, we must begin far earlier than when students arrive on the college campus. The senior year in high school is too late as well. Thom Rainer argues effectively in his book Essential Church that age 16 is when teens start to drop out of church. (It’s a great resource for those wanting more research and insight into the subject of reaching young adults.)

In summary, here are some things I’ve highlighted that may help us re-begin our witness and encouragement to young adults in the church:

• Desegregating youth groups from the church at large
• Establishing well-defined and meaningful transitions to adulthood
• Raising our expectations of church and young adults
• Making the faith stories of church members a vital part of worship and small groups

Collegiate ministers located on the college campus have their work cut out for them. They face a difficult, time-consuming challenge: proclaim the Gospel to lost students and reclaim the “Christianized” students. In the latter, they work to transform an apathetic, dead faith crawl to a vibrant, glorious faith walk. At present, it’s a losing battle. Collegiate ministers need help from the church.

They must not disconnect from the church in frustration, but instead radically reconnect with the church with a fresh vision of what it will take to reach this generation together. I believe that in order for collegiate ministry to be done well, it must be done early. The hurdles in our churches are not insurmountable. Let’s jump high!

In a few short weeks, I’ll be going to Poland for the second time in less than a year. I was blessed to go last October on a Discovery Trip sponsored by the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. I got to hang out with Ed Stetzer, Rick White, and some amazing missionaries that serve in Poland.

One of the goals of the trip was for the pastors who went to be mobilizers for Central and Eastern Europe. It’s one of the most difficult areas of our world to evangelize.

At the end of this month, I’ll be traveling back to that wonderful region of the world with members of the UAM softball team, the Cotton Blossoms. From Journey Church, Tracy Reed, the UAM Baptist Collegiate Minister will be going along with me and my wife and Lou Arnold. The goal of our trip is to assist the ministry of our missionaries overseas by conducting sports clinics and building new relationships through our work there.

When we asked the softball gals to go, we committed to helping them raise their money for the trip (in addition to our own). With a cost upwards of $1500 per person for plane fare, room and board, that was a sizable faith step. Little were we to know that Lou would raise all of her money within the first two weeks via Facebook!

During the time we announced our trip, we have been able to also send over three guys from our church to help the missionaries over spring break. They were able to work with the Krakow Tigers, Poland’s professional football team.

The purpose of my writing today is to ask you to help us raise the remaining money for our trip. We only need $3000 to reach our goal! Could you spare a few bucks – the cost of a Coke, or a Happy Meal, a movie, etc. to send our team to Poland? We would sincerely appreciate whatever you are able to do!

We are at the point of needing to purchase our plane tickets before the cost gets away from us! Help us finish this goal this week! And thank you so much in advance for your kindness, prayers and generosity!

It’s a little awkward to write a blog entry like this lest it be taken as a cry for affirmation from my own church members. That is not the intention. However, I will not refuse any encouragement directed my way. ;)

Tuesday morning, our church hosted a regular event that we call NCourage. It’s specifically designed to encourage, uplift and affirm ministers, pastors and staff in our area. Being one of those myself, I know well the burden and difficulty of leading a group of people to voluntarily pursue a passionate love relationship with Christ. In order to do that, you must consistently model it. That means that we cannot lead in a direction where we ourselves are not going. It also means that spiritual leadership for some can become a barren, thankless task.

At NCourage, we give out free resources for those who come, and we invite a guest speaker to come and share in a way that will allow ministers to leave refreshed and renewed.

On Tuesday, we partnered with Rose Hill Freewill Baptist Church. They had invited pastor and author Rob Morgan to speak in revival services at their church, and their pastor, David Ponder, graciously agreed to share Rob with us. Our two churches split the cost of a case of Rob’s book Red Sea Rules, and Journey folks provided breakfast food for the morning meeting.

It was truly encouraging. Rob did a wonderful job of sharing about the importance of infecting your people with confident joy. He spoke from 2 Samuel 18, where David actually infected his army with despair because of his inappropriate mourning for his son Absalom. Absalom had actually tried to usurp his kingdom!

Rob said, “The attitude of the leader affects everyone underneath him.” He went on to urge the small gathering to find our satisfaction and joy in ministry from our walk with the Lord rather than our work for Him.

The Joy of Smallness

Speaking of small gatherings, the attendance issue is one that often plagues ministers. Unfortunately, we judge too quickly the impact or success of an event by numerical feedback. I don’t know of anyone pastor who hates it when a room is packed. On the contrary, I admit the personal frustration of planning well for a ministry event only to succumb to disappoint at a poor showing.

Numbers are very poor way to judge influence and impact.

Kent Hughes has a book called Liberating Your Ministry from the Success Syndrome which should be a must-read for every minister. After reading it years ago, I resolved to never preach to a few people. I always prepare and preach as if there will be thousands present. Every gathering deserves your very best.

I heard the following illustration while I was on a mission trip to Canada with college students back in 2000. It reminds me of the importance of never letting the size of your ministry or event reflect on your influence.

In a far country lived a band of minstrels who traveled from town to town presenting music to make a living.  Unfortunately, they had not been doing well.  Times were hard; there was little money for common folk to come to hear the minstrels, even though their fee was small.

Attendance had been falling off, so early one morning the group met to discuss their plight.

‘I see no reason for opening tonight,’ one said.  ‘To make things even worse then they may have been, it is starting to snow.  Who will venture out on a night like this?’

‘I agree,’ another disheartened singer said. ‘Last night we performed for just a handful.  Few will come tonight, why not give back their meager fees and cancel the concert?  No one can expect us to go on when just a few are in the audience.’

A third minstrel joined in saying, ‘How can anyone do his best for so few?’  Then he turned to another sitting beside him and asked, ‘What do you think?’

The man appealed to was older than the others.  He looked straight at his troupe.  ‘I know you are discouraged.  I am too.  But we have a responsibility to those who might come.  We will go on.  And we will do the best job of which we are capable. It is not the fault of those who come that others do not.  They should not be punished with less than the best we can give.’

Heartened by his words, the minstrels went ahead with their show.  They never preformed better. When the show was over and the small audience gone, the old man called his troupe to him.  In his hand was a note, handed to him by one in the audience just before the doors closed behind him.

‘Listen to this, my friends!’ Something electrifying in his tone of voice made them turn to him in anticipation.

Slowly the old man read: ‘Thank you for a beautiful performance.’  It was signed very simply — your King.

Disappearance of Testimonies

It’s hard to do collegiate ministry these days when the college students we’re attempting to minister with and to have never heard from anyone what it means to follow Jesus personally. Oh sure, they’ve heard tons of sermons, VBS lessons, youth devotionals, and Sunday School lessons. But the American church today is silent when it comes to personal stories of faith.

When was the last time you heard someone besides your pastor or a church leader share about the difference following Christ has meant in their personal life? Where do young adults hear the real stories of faith today in our curriculum-intensive, content-focused churches? Faith stories are infrequent, and for the most part, they are considered “special” parts of most services.

For collegians, it has a powerfully negative impact on their own faith development to never hear how others have encountered God personally. This lack of understanding what it means to have a personal, intimate relationship with God brings collegians to the university campus with a Velcro Christianity that is easily replaced.

Youth need to hear personal faith stories from each other and from adults in their churches early and often. They need to see how God works in the lives of others, and how a personal love for God is fleshed out in someone’s life. If all they observe about Christianity is a series of church services, events, and programs, they will quickly toss that aside in exchange for what will bring them more personal fulfillment. Unfortunately, there are a lot of negative options on the college campus.

It’s this disappearance of reality-show faith stories that makes it difficult for young adults to relate to most churches today. They don’t want to be a part of a crowd. They want to be involved in a movement. If those in attendance are simply logging in religious hours, college students quickly discern their lack of transparency and opt for places where they can be “real.”

Another sad tendency of many churches is to only put refined Christians on display. If we do hear from members in the pew, it always seem to be those who have had their situations tidily resolved. That’s not true to life. Most of us are aware of friends and family members engaged in intense faith struggles or other challenges. It’s precisely during the hard times that we need to hear from them how they are finding faith and Christ to be sufficient. Young adults don’t want a polished, shiny plastic faith story that would be just at home in the display window in the mall. They learn more from those in the trenches, those who are gritting it out with God. When you see a person slugging it out with Satan, defiantly proclaiming, “Nothing can separate me from the love of Christ,” – that’s the right time for a person to share their story.

Faith stories and their proclamation help growing believers see and relate earthly life with the spiritual realm. Descriptions of struggles and successes help us put feet and faces to our faith. Even in the New Testament, we see a retelling of some of the great faith stories of old in Hebrews 11. Reminding one another what God has done in each of our lives is a powerful tool for shaping and discipling college students.

You Get What You Expect
Maybe the main reason we don’t see many churches producing dynamic young disciples for the Lord Jesus is because we just don’t expect much from our young people. I have found that people will generally rise or fall to our level of expectation from them. Let’s paint with big strokes for them for God’s glory!

Unfortunately, another reason we don’t see many dynamic young disciples in our churches – and I can speak only of my own denomination here – is because there is a famine of older dynamic disciples in our churches. Across the board, we just don’t expect much from church these days. Stand in the back of most traditional churches today and listen to the amazing depth of the 21st century American church:

Nice sermon, preacher.
Boy, the choir was great today!
Went a little long today, didn’t we, pastor? (nudge, nudge, wink, wink)
Good crowd today, huh?
Man, the capuccino shop in the church foyer was a great move!

We might as well be attending Rotary. Where is the attitude of expectancy for our God to show Himself? Where is the reverence? Where is the holy thought of being used by God to build His kingdom in our communities? Put simply, it’s gone.

We have not because we expect not. No one expects anything, and no one’s talking about it. The deafening silence of God-experiences is the last hurdle to jump in order for effective collegiate ministry to begin in the church.

What in the world would persuade a teen in church today to passionately embrace a love relationship with the living God when he is surrounded by so many that lack it? Have teens today been conditioned to accept a pragmatic “what Jesus can do for you” Christianity than the forgiveness of Christ Jesus through repentance? Our kids through many of our children’s ministry programs are steadily weened off of God.

Entering the greatest arena of spiritual warfare and philosophical disputation in our society today – the university – is like marching our churched students off a cliff. We have not expected much from ourselves, from our churches, or from them… except maybe that they meet a nice girl or guy and make a good living…

To be continued…

No Transition to Adulthood

You would think that our churches would embrace their youth as their key strategy to impact the world of tomorrow for Christ. It would also ensure that they have a church of tomorrow. However, in the words of prominent theologian Rodney Dangerfield, they “don’t get no respect.”

After all, when does a person become an adult in our culture? Heck, you can vote when you’re 18, but you can’t drink alcohol legally in some states at that age. In most states, you can drive when you’re 16, but you can’t smoke a cigarette. You can go see a rated “R” movie when you’re 17, but in most traditional churches, you’ll never see a teenager on a finance committee. With such an obvious confusion in our culture and churches, is it any wonder that today’s adolescents are confused? Not only do we not give our teens a change to succeed in our churches, but any cultural observer can note that we have created a climate of postponed adolescence in our society as well, with many adults continuing to act like one might expect an early teen to act well into their 30s.

I think there are two optimal occurrences that we can seize for maximum impact in adolescence. One is the 13th birthday as an adulthood transition. The other is an adolescent’s first ballot: his car keys. When those keys first reach his pocket, he is given the power to vote with his presence where he will spend his time, Search for senior high students in most youth ministries today, and you will see they are “voting” to go elsewhere.

What can the church do to communicate the passage from childhood to adulthood? From being the center of their own world to being a servant in our ours? I believe the church must lead out in a cultural revolution that will bring purpose and meaning to our adolescents precisely at the time they are crying out for it.
Where can we look for such models of adulthood transition? Sit down and relax. Take a deep breath. Evangelicals, don’t get constipated here. I think we can look to Jesus’ people for it. We can look to the Jews.

You(th) Can Learn a Lot from a Jew

What element of orthodox Jewish culture is celebrated without reservation and carries immense symbolism for a Jewish youth? What exists already in Jewish life that communicates to their young that they are now “adults?” The bar mitzvah.

This ancient practice may hold immense practical wisdom for evangelicals today. When you consider the astounding proportion of Jewish youth that go on to become national leaders in politics, technology, science, education, finance… you name it, I for one think we must look at what happened to communicate to these youth at an early age that they “can.”

On the one hand, you take the typical evangelical congregation. When a child hits 6th or 7th grade, congratulations, you get to go to youth group! (Oooohh, aaaaaaahhhhh!) And so begins a six-year odyssey in which we not only segregate youth from the “life” of the congregation (I use life here very generously), but we proceed to entertain them with camps, retreats, concerts, endless supplies of t-shirts with war-like messages on them (won’t they endear themselves to our culture with messages like “Turn or Burn” cheerfully emblazoned on their backs), and a weekly youth group meeting that has no overall vision or strategy for what it wants to accomplish or produce in the lives of these impressionable youth (Adolescence is the age at which they’re the most impressionable. Billy Graham tells us that if a person hasn’t become a Christian by the age of 18, there’s an 85% chance they never will. More recent research suggests that the age is dropping, that youth are cynical younger, and that the key average age is actually more like 15.).

I suggest that each church form a youth strategy team that would actively research and then implement a plan for their church that would affirm a child as he reaches the age 13 and lay before them the vision of service and responsibility they will find within their church. This doesn’t mean we don’t have fun with our teens in church. It does mean that we will most likely hit at what we’re aiming at, that we will produce what we are organized for, that youth will meet our expectations of them.

Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock, Arkansas was planted by a trio of friends that sought to address this very issue… with their own kids. Years later, lead pastor Robert Lewis wrote a book called Raising a Modern Day Knight. It’s principles are transferrable to girls in many ways. But he has also produced material called The New Eve. Both seek to begin the strategic instruction of kids much earlier than traditional churches.

However you consider it, if a church waits until a student reaches 18 to begin doing effective collegiate ministry, it will be too late. By the time a student reaches his or her teen years, their faith (or lack thereof) is firmly formed. I’m reminded of the admonition of Hebrews 5.12-14:

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

Unfortunately, this verse as often as not applies to adult members of our churches. But that’s another series for another day. Perhaps we just don’t expect enough from our church…

Stay tuned…

• Segregation of Youth Groups

Our churches have ensured their own demise by segregating their youth into “youth groups”, entertaining these same youth for 6 years (instead of challenging them in daily discipleship), and then, as if to put the nail in the coffin, giving them sweet little graduation presents (like “Wisdom for the Graduate”) as they bid them well on the eve of their collegiate experience.

Such is a guaranteed recipe for mush. There is little or no thought about how to produce a disciple that will stay the course in many mainstream churches. One dismal statistic began alarming leaders a few years back: 89% of churched youth leave the church when they go to college. Those who leave may return, if at all, after they’re married and have their first children.

While some dispute this alarming statistic, a more significant, subjective tool can also be used. If your church is located in a community where there is a college, how many college students attend your church? Are the high school students that graduated from your church last year actively involved in a church right now? Ask them. You may be surprised at their answers.

The “black hole” of the church is soundless; it’s a great void that sucks life from every denomination. Where are the grown-up children? Where is the generation aged 18-25 in the church? Or even 30-somethings? Are they all flocking to the new megachurch in the suburbs, or are they staying at home, making Sunday the new Saturday?

One reason we may not be seeing these ages in the church is because they don’t feel like church “belongs” to them. Our churched youth have no sense of ownership of their church. As soon as they began thinking for themselves, they were ushered off into a segregated church-world. Most have no voice, no vote, and no influence whatsoever on their church. Add to that problem the issue of the occasional youth minister that perpetuates that “us vs. them” mindset in his youth group, and well, why should we wonder where youth are going? They don’t get a fair shake in the only place in the world they should expect one.

Another reason that youth may not be in the church is that the church just isn’t into youth. Too many churches think they’re doing “collegiate ministry” by providing Sunday School classes for them. Yet these students, who are old enough to defend our country, drive, and even drink alchohol are not deemed mature enough to serve on most church leadership teams or committees.We treat young people as lower class citizens in the church. They’re great for numbers, but we don’t want them having voices of influence.

Articles on the Christian collegiate dropout problem:

• Lifeway Research
• Busting the Dropout Myth
• Church dropouts

The remarkable trend of the last 40 years of a separate, high-octane “youth ministry” may have produced a lot of noise and created the church van industry, but have youth ministries effectively prepared and discipled students? Are they reaching the college campus able to not only defend their faith but thrive in it?

To be continued…

I served as a collegiate minister on the campus of the University of Arkansas at Monticello for 8 years. They were precious years of enduring ministry. Both of our kids were born during that time, and I’m convinced that there is no better environment in which to raise your children than around college students who are passionate about Christ.

This series looks at the state of collegiate ministry and asks the question, “Where should collegiate ministry begin?”

Each fall in our collegiate ministry, we geared up our student leaders up for “Welcome Week.” The first few days of school are incredibly influential on a student’s collegiate destiny. Imagine: a freshman arrives on campus and is in the first few hours invited to several parties, most sponsored by fraternities. That first night on campus, a lifestyle is established that may persist through four or more years of college and then influence a career and family.

And so our collegiate ministry sponsored as many high impact events as possible in the first several days of school. We not only wanted to offer an alternative, but we actually wanted to save students from themselves. A student’s destiny is measured heavily by how he spends his first 10 days on campus. Heavy stuff, huh? Welcome Week was immensely important to us, but that is not where collegiate ministry begins. It’s not even close. Collegiate ministry must begin before a student reaches college, and it must begin in our churches.

As we talk about where collegiate ministry must begin, please understand that it isn’t as simple as revising our generational ministry strategy. It’s not the Net Gen that we aren’t reaching. It’s not even Gen X or the Mil Gen. Simply put, the church is missing people. The church spends so much time trying to reclaim what it’s lost that it spends minimal time trying to proclaim to those it’s never found. It makes it all the more difficult when those the church hasn’t reached yet don’t want to be reached. They are actively avoiding the American church (specifically, people age 15-30) like one would swerve to miss roadkill.

If collegiate ministry is going to become more effective, then we must honestly address some problems in the place it must begin – the church. They include the segregation of youth groups, the lack of an adulthood transition, low expectation, and the disappearance of “testimonies.” Remember, we are only dealing with those who have been impacted by church growing up (a teeny minority these days). This series will not deal with the staggering challenges of reaching the never-churched people in our society.

To be continued…

This month, our church has three members heading to Poland to work with the Krakow Tigers in sports ministry. We’re excited for Jeremy, Clark and Michael. If you are able to help support their trip, please do so by using the ChipIn widget below. If just 2o0 folks gave $3, their goal would be met! Your gifts are tax deductible, and the guys will be extremely grateful for your generosity. Please pray about whether you might be used by the Lord to help send them to Poland!

Many thanks to Lou for creating this video for Journey’s missions lunches.

Occasionally I highlight a ministry-related website that either has caught my eye graphically or because of usefulness. The Living Open Source blog is run by Tim from the UK and attracted me for both of the above reasons.

I first found LOS when I was searching for a great Wordpress theme for our church. He offers several church-related Wordpress themes for free download on his site. However, it was his consistent helpful content that led me to subscribe to his feed and become a fan.

His current theme is the ETA Wordpress theme, and the clouds you see in the above image reveal an entry summary when you hover over them with your mouse. Very nice. While everything is well organized, the nice features of the cloud interaction do not carry over throughout the rest of the site. The rest of the site is a great source for learning about how to maximize a Wordpress site for your church or ministry and the promotion of OpenSource software.

OpenSource software is defined as free software made available to users in which the actual source code is open to all, and is generally available for tweaking, improving and open collaborating. I, for one, am a huge proponent of OpenSource software (it’s free, hello!). Tim on LOS says, “There is something very gospel about the whole concept of open source, so it seemed like a good name for my site.”

In addition, the overall purpose of the site is stated as:

The aim of this blog?? – well an opportunity to share thoughts, things, ideas and skills with anybody who might be interested. You’ll find stuff on blogging your church with WordPress, which OpenSource applications allow you to ditch Microsoft as well as the odd visual for Sunday’s sermon.

Some of the must-read articles on LOS include:

Another fantastic thing about LOS is the interactivity. Tim has been more than helpful on a number of occasions responding to comments and emails about themes, plugins and general Wordpress help. And if you look closely at his rapidly expanding Churches-on-Wordpress list, you’ll see Journey currently at #127.

I attended the Arkansas Baptist Evangelism Conference today at First Baptist Sherwood. I came with the great expectation of visiting with and listening to an old friend from OBU days. Wes Hamilton, now the teaching pastor at Lake Pointe Church in Rockwall, Texas, did a fantastic job of communicating the desperate need to destroy the sacred-secular barrier by seeing all of life as sacred. 

However, I also heard two other dynamic teachers in Dr. Roy Fish and Dr. Robert Smith. Dr. Fish retired from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (my alma mater) as one of its most beloved and respected professors of evangelism. He has never failed to have a fresh word, and this afternoon was no different as he urged the gathered leaders to rely solely upon the power of the Holy Spirit in the work of evangelism. Dr. Smith is the professor of Christian Preaching at Beeson Divinity School. He too spoke with authority and passion as he communicated our great need to reach our children and young adults for Christ. I’ll try to blog my notes later this week.

Another powerful thing about gatherings such as these is the fellowship and renewed friendship that minister encounter together. I’ve blogged recently about the sweet spirit of camaraderie that pervades the hallways and restaurants around meetings such as these. Successes are recounted as well as failures, heartaches and praises shared. It’s hard to imagine a more misunderstood and underappreciated group of men and women than ministers. Listening to someone else’s problems does wonders for putting your own – and your peoples’ – into perspective.

The theme for this year in Arkansas Baptist life is “Reaching Generation Next Now,” and the Evangelism Conference sought to focus churches on the urgency of reaching their own children and youth. With study after study showing that 80% or more of churched youth drop out of church sometime around the age of 16, it becomes more imperative than ever not just to reach young people in their formative years but to impact homes holistically as never before.

I’m more convinced than ever that churches will not be able to effect and aid a spiritual transformation of the homes that compose their memberships by doing business as usual. Too many folks see the church as a drop-off center for ministry and even as a religious club with membership rights and privileges for us to effectively evangelize and disciple future generations. We must do more than reach youth. We must penetrate faulty and fatal worldly thinking in the homes of these same youth.

It will not be done by planning or strategy. I deeply respected all the guest speakers today for emphasizing our complete dependence on the Lord for the renovation of our hearts and our churches. The radical movement we seek must be engineered by God through His Spirit. As leaders who deeply desire to see people brought into our churches through regeneration and salvation, we must lead the church to a wholehearted, desperate dependence and reliance on God to do spiritual surgery on the church and our lost world.

As I continue to mull over the messages from today, I’d be interested in knowing what you think is required of God’s people to begin to authentically present the Gospel of Christ to our communities…

It’s been a while since I addressed the issue of whether churches should build more facilities or plant new churches. The trend in established churches is unfortunately, an unquestioned embrace that “bigger is better.” However, as I’ve said in previous entries in this series, it’s obviously not wrong to build or expand ministry facilities. What I’ve tried to advocate is a thoughtful, missional strategy for a growing church.

With that said, let’s look at the next reason why many churches choose building over planting:

• Desire for achievement, recognition, or status

While we see these selfish grasps for ambition more easily in individuals, they are just as apt to be present in a myopic organization. It’s the unspoken motivation of wanting other churches and ministries to “look how good we are…” What began as joyful response to God’s blessing in growth morphs into an unhealthy organizational self-love that devolves into self-promotion and neglect of assisting the development and extension of the kingdom of God in the world. Rather, it focuses only on what will make itself look good or earn other’s envy.

If church leaders aren’t zealous self-examiners, they may unintentionally begin using their church as a way to prop up their own ministerial resumes. Church growth becomes a means to earn the approval and respect of other churches and leaders. 

Because the church itself benefits from this growth and activity in obvious ways (new facilities, new ministries, a wide range of social activities, and a feeling of success), its members too fall prey to this type of thinking and become mindless advocates for the progress of their own church.

It doesn’t matter that sister churches in the area might be blessed from some of their abundant resources. They are unaware of the urgent needs of missionaries overseas. Strategic thinking about how Christ might desire them to minister and connect with His larger body is conspicuously absent. 

Money, time, and resources are invested and spent internally – and on projects endorsed or developed by that one church. If the idea doesn’t originate from within, it becomes unworthy of consideration or investment. It’s not that the church isn’t doing wonderful things, but in the long run, it is running a one-horse race to win achievement, recognition, and status.

One of the reasons that it’s exceedingly difficult for churches to consider starting a new church rather than building or expanding is due how exceedingly difficult it is to plant a new church. It will take resources, manpower, more prayer than ever before, the generosity of allowing current members to go with the new church plant, etc. 

Most of us pastors don’t thrill at the idea of “losing” key leaders. But that’s what beginning a new church often does. In joy and grace, we lovingly release some of our best and brightest to ensure the health and guidance of the new plant. Of course, there are other folks that we’d love to “send out” to a new church, but that would bless the mother church and curse the daughter church. ;)

We also don’t get charged up about allocating significant resources from already-tight budgets to another church plant. It doesn’t “benefit” the main church. But perhaps that’s another precise reason why church planting should be done. It’s selfless. It’s a recognition that if previous leaders hadn’t invested in us, our own church wouldn’t exist today.

In short, church planting may actually be one of the primary tools that we can use to kill the sinful selfish desire for achievement, recognition, or status.