Yesterday morning one of “The Ladies” asked me for some chocolate milk.
Because she had not yet eaten breakfast, I told her “No.”
She folded her arms, looked deep into my eyes, and said, “Dad, I’m not impressed with you.”
Huh?
Reading this morning from David Putman’s book, Breaking the Discipleship Code, I came across a quote worth sharing,
Why do we as followers of Jesus, think we have to have all the answers? I believe this is the difference between having a relationship with Jesus and practicing a religion. If you are interested in a religion, you need all the answers. If you are interested in following Jesus, you don’t have to have all the answers because you can trust Him.
Right now I’m sitting in the next to last Church Planter’s Coaching Network meeting.
Today we’re going to discuss the last of the five “Best Practices” – Financing the Mission.
Churchplanters.com teaches that the five “Best Practices” are:
You can read more about these practices here.
If you’re interested in being a part of this monthly coaching network, you can find out how here.
The thing about these practices is that they are not original to churchplanters.com or any other organization. These are simply the practices that healthy, successful pastors and leaders are embracing and living out.
I love it that these guys have identified these “best practices”, model them, and teach them to pastors and leaders everywhere.
Gosh, it’s almost “Go-Time” for us! I can’t wait! So much is happening so quickly that occasionally I like to write it down to keep it straight; it also serves as a journal for us to look back on someday.
We have decided to rent for the first little while. This gives us some flexibility and time to gain a full understanding of the area and determine where we’re going to live before we settle in for good. Please pray for God’s favor during these next few weeks.So there it is… some waddup! Thanks for traveling with us on this journey!
Sherri and I keep a “Domestic Detail” list. It is simply a breakdown of all of the chores to be done around the house with a name attached to each chore. It’s really not a very “sexy” list so we jazzed it up a bit with a cool name.
Yesterday I heard a funny take on the whole “Domestic Detail” thing by the extremely funny, Jeff Foxworthy,
Whatever cleaning goes on on the planet, women do 99% of it. But see, women are not as proud of their 99% as men are of our one! We clean something up, we’re gonna talk about it all year long. It might be on the news, you don’t know. A woman could be out re-paving the driveway. Men will actually get up, go outside and say, “Hey baby! Man it’s hot as hell out here! Look, don’t worry about emptyin’ that ashtray in the den, I done got it, all right? Did it for you, sweet pea. I’m gonna take a nap now.”
Here’s to all the men who engage in “Domestic Detail” and the 1% that we proudly execute!
Reading from Vance Trimble’s biography of Sam Walton this morning I found a great description of what keeps great leaders great.
David Glass, who would someday become the CEO of Wal-Mart, had just watched Sam Walton pull off a TERRIBLE store opening in Harrison, Arkansas. After observing the fiasco, he said, “It was the worst retail store I had ever seen”, and walked away from Walton’s offer of employment.
After returning, and ultimately becoming the CEO, he said of Walton,
The thing that I underestimated about Sam is that he has an overriding something in him that causes him to improve every day. That’s not difficult when you have something as bad as he had in Harrison, but sometimes you achieve success and say, “Boy, now I got it like I want it. Now I can lay back a little and enjoy it.” Sam has never done that. As long as I have known him, he has never gotten to the point where he is comfortable with who he is or how we are doing.
Great leaders/people perpetuate greatness by maintaining a constant state of evolution.
Last night Jeff and I had a great dinner, met a lot of new friends, and heard some exciting stories about how God is working in and through the local church across the nation.
As we sat with the guys from ARC three themes stood out:
I’m looking forward to a day of learning and networking with some new friends.
Today Jeff and I are leaving “on a jet plane” for Texas. There we will be meeting with a group of pastors from ARC (Association of Related Churches).
Our purpose is two-fold: networking with some guys who are getting it done and fundraising.
One of the great experiences I have had over these last months is the beauty of networking. It’s so exciting to see men and women from all over the world, from all sorts of denominations, and with all sorts of methodologies coming together for one grand cause… to clear away the religious mess and help people discover Jesus.
More later…
Nelson Searcy has finally gotten into the blogosphere. He is a systems genius and someone that I am constantly learning from. He has a couple of posts worth checking out:
Chunks Corbett, the executive pastor at Elevation Church writes a great post in which he discusses how they are continually rethinking and revising their meeting format. Every lead pastor should read this. Click here to read The “Bored” Meeting.
You should also check out:
OK, enough systems stuff for one night… I’m outa here!
My friend Chris Reeder has asked the question, “What advice would you give to a guy that has been called into church planting, but sometimes feels that he has no idea what he is doing?”
He asked a bunch of church planters and soon-to-be church planters what they thought.
So far the list includes:
If you’re thinking about planting a church, or you’re fresh into it you’re going to want to check out these posts!
Thanks Chris for putting this together.
