I have a theory.  It’s not a proven theory but it is one that I really believe in.

I think that crowd dynamics have  a lot to do with how people feel when they are in a crowd.

You have to have enough people in a room to feel cozy but not so many people that you feel suffocated.

Not theology.  Just an opinion.

I also have another opinion.  I hate to preach to empty rows of chairs.

Certainly not theology.  Just an opinion.

So we try to set up just enough chairs but not too many so that the room will feel good and I will get my way and not have to preach to empty rows.  It’s the small things, I know.  We also tape off, with red tape (Freedom Church colors) the back few rows and encourage people to sit in the front.  Seemed like a good idea to me.  It just never works.

People move the tape.  People play limbo with the tape.  People step over the tape.  People do all kinds of things with the tape, but the only thing that they don’t do is sit on the front rows.  I was frustrated by the tape.

So I buckled down and told my staff.  Enforce the tape, gently, but enforce the tape.  I know it even types stupid, but it was a moment.

Then finally after a few people said, “We should get rid of the tape”, “we hate the tape” or “We have tape?” I asked my wife.

Here is ger exact quote,

“Oh, I hate the tape I think it sends the wrong message.  I just figured you were Mr. Church Planter so you probably knew better”.

I am getting rid of the red tape and how fitting a reminder it is to make sure we don’t put any red tape in the way of people connecting to God.

I am practicing this week by preaching to empty rows since that is how the front row will look at Freedom Church this week.

Oh and I am also making a list of things I need to ask my wife about!

If you are thinking of planting a church there is a really important concept you need to ask yourself before you start building a core team.  Are you willing to give away the church?

It seems like a weird question given that intelectually we would all quickly say, “the church belongs to God” and I agree, but lets just be honest the church plant is also a dream coming to life of the planter.  To act as if there are no strings attatched to you as a planter, no possesiveness, no deep seeded emotions would be silly.  You will feel in many ways like the church is your baby so the big questions is, are you willing to give it away?

Every daughter will eventually be walked down an aisle and given away.
Every small business will eventually hire others and delegate tasks.
Every husband will eventually hold his wife’s hand as she leaves to be with Jesus.

The question of if we give away is not the real question, the question is when and in a church plant it is early on if you want to grow.

Does your church fund just your dreams or the dreams of others too?

Does your church only play music you like or have you given that away?

Do you do all of the ministry?

Until you are ready to give it away, it will only be as big as something you can hold.

I have been praying a very bold prayer for our church concerning a permanent home recently.

I have been asking God to provide generously, show us the right timing and make it just the right place.

As we were driving past one piece of land that is in my “sights” I asked my 6-year old daughter to pray with me and to pray every time we drive past that land and ask God to give us favor. (we talked about what favor was too and why we would need land etc.)

Her response was amazing.
She said, “Dad, I’ll pray…but God is bigger than some piece of land Dad”.

I asked her what she meant and she clarified for her sometimes slow dad.

“Dad, God already gave us a great school to meet in as a church when we need the land he’ll give us that too, he is bigger than land”.

Seriously convicted of my lack of faith I told her how cool she was and that maybe she could pray for me too.

There is the picture of the Good Shepherd in Luke chapter 15 that is contrary to most people’s view of God.

And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’
(Luke 15:5-6 ESV)

When Jesus find you in your sin, He rejoices to bring you home.
When Jesus carries you home in your filth and starts to clean you, He rejoices to bring you home.

He is not waiting to scold you.
He is not waiting to embarrass you.
He is not waiting to punish you.

He is waiting to throw you a party.
Why don’t you come home.

Here is the line-up for this week:

Monday January 9, 2012 – “Joyfully in His Arms”
In Luke 15 Jesus tells a story of a lost sheep who the good shepherd joyfully throws over his arms.

Tuesday January 10, 2012 – “God is better than some piece of land”
This was a quote from my six year old as we prayed for a piece of land for Freedom Church and it was a sobering moment for her dad.  God is bigger than your stuff too.

Wednesday January 11, 2012 – Are you ready to give away “your” church
Thinking about planting a church? Before you plant this is a question you have to answer.

Thursday January 12, 2012 – “Red tape, literally”
Are you willing to get past yourself and your pride to really hear what people are saying.  It takes me a few times, but eventually God breaks through my thick skull to push away the red tape.

Friday January 13, 2012 – Share your life: Share your calendar.
If you share your life with someone you should share your calendar.

Saturday January 14, 2012 – “Teach your children to Love Jesus”
Until I became a parent I had no idea how many parenting philosophies there were.  I also had no idea the passion involved. What if our main philosophy was to teach our children to love Jesus.  I wonder if that would change anything?

Its the moment when your six year old asks a question about God that shows genuine interest.

The moment when your sixteen year old asks, “how did you and Mom meet again?”.

The moment when your twelve year old comes home from school in tears and asks why no one likes them.

The moment when your little boy actually responds when you say, “how was your day”.

Many times these moments are disguised as passing and normal, but they are not.

They are usually that moment when you don’t have “time” to talk but your child wants to.

They are open windows into the heart and the soul of your child.

Don’t break in when they are not open.
Don’t be negligent and let others in when they are.One of the hardest things in parenting is getting into the heart of your child. Every now an then they leave an open window and when they do don’t miss the opportunity.

Believe it or not it is only 92 days until Easter and it is time to plan. I know that we just finished Christmas Eve and we have 12 Sundays in-between but its time to start planning. Why?

1. We plan because the stakes are too high to depend on our own strength and God uses our time of planning as a place to speak to us and unearth our best.
2. We plan because our volunteers deserve us to think through how we will use their talents and abilities.
3. We plan because some of our best ideas will take time to pull off.
4. We plan because there are people coming that need to hear about Jesus and we need to do our absolute best and be great.

So plan your first creative meeting this week and get the right people in the room and start planning.

In preaching what my friend Glenn Lucke calls “Connective Tissue” is the stuff that holds all the bones of theology together. It is the creative story that illustrates a great theological point. It is the joke told at just the right time in order to open someones heart and soul. It is the cultural hat tip that says, “This guy lives on the same planet that I do!”

But connective tissue is interesting. It grows very slowly and is very easily notcied when it is artificial. In other words a story found surfing the internet on Saturday night looks like a new cheap toupe.

In order to to really see connective tissue take hold of your preaching I have found that it is helpful to:

1. Plan your preaching schedule out as far as possible.
This will be different for everyone, but I guarentee you could, if you realy put your mind to it, plan your preaching scheudule at least 8 weeks ahead. I am currently planned out through the end of 2012 (with just a few gaps) on scripture, series and topics and have research and rough outlines for eleven weekends ahead. and I say about 2 weeks out on actual sermons written. This allows me to start the cultivating of connective tissue.

2. Read the scripture or book of the Bible that you are going to preach often.

Reading the scripture that you are going to preach often during the weeks ahead of preaching it allows the Holy Spirit to speak to you, allows new ideas to come into play and allows you to find life experiences that match the scripture. Scripture marinates well. If you don’t do step one you will never be able to do this though and you will find yourself finding scripture to match your life experiences which is very dangerous preaching.

3. Practice your sermons.
Here is what this looks like for me:
- I preach my sermon sitting down at my desk outloud when I finish the basic outline to see what flows. Its rough, but I am the only audience so its cool.
- I usually am about two weeks out on written full manuscripts. As I write them I practice outloud, especially the transitionary lines (which I bold in red). This allows me to see where there are gaps that need to be filled.
- The week of I preach my sermon standing up and time myslef. I try to do this on Tuesday so I can make appropriate changes early enough in the week.

If you follow these steps in your own style I bet you will start to see some more connective tissue growing around your bones!

As a church planter (and really just a Pastor in general) people usually have two assumptions about my time.

First, some have no idea what I could possibly do with my time. In the most extreme cases this produces the question, “So what do you do for a living?” even after learning I am the lead Pastor of the church.

Second, some assume that I must be crazy busy. This produces the often asked question/statement of “Boy you must be really busy”.

A couple of years ago I heard that question with a new filter. It was the filter of Jesus ministry on earth. Jesus was rarely “crazy busy”. Only on rare occassions do we see Jesus pulling an all-nighter. We often see Jesus veering off the course of the day because a relational opportunity comes his way. Jesus was productive but he was not busy. Jesus used his time wisely but he did not fill his schedule. Jesus had margin.

The most productive thing you can do this week is cancel something to make margin in your week. Margin does three things for your life that are essential to your success. This post will help you find margin in your week, today.

1. Margin gives you time to respond to the needs of people.
In the end that is the only reason we exist if we are Christ-followers. Those people are our family who are our number one priority, friends who we live in community with and strangers who The Holy Spirit prompts of to offer hospitality too. Without margin we will feel that all three of these are inconveniences at some level.
2. Margin gives you time to hear from God.
I really think that if Satan has his way you will live a busy life in 2012. You will attend every event, meeting and group at the church and you will spend lots of time reading how to be a better leader, planning services and in services and overall be extrememy busy “for” God. In the end you will never hear from God. Without margin we will feel lost but be making great time!
3. Margin gives you time to do what you have committed to do.
The truth is that even with margin we are over-committed and we have an epidemic of not doing what we say we will do as a culture. What if you were able to actually pray for people that you told you would? What if you actually showed up on time to the lunch? What if you delivered the project ahead of schedule? What if you were trusted by the few people you committed to even if there were people you disappointed with “no”. Without margin you will feel good about saying “yes” in the moment but not have the time to feel good about actually doing something.

So how do you get margin today?

Step one: List all of the commitment’s you have made to regularly scheduled meetings of any kind and rank in order of importance. **Cancel the bottom one.**
Step two: Look through all of your committments (projects, honey-do lists, books to read, etc) and look for two things you know you are not going to do. With grace and honesty let the person know and repent of over committing and get that off your mental plate.
Step three: Don’t agree to anything new for at least one week and then after a week guard your calendar like a warrior. If someone asks simply say, “I will need to check and make sure I can really do that – can I have a week to get back to you?”

Make margin and it will change your world. Then when people ask, “are you busy?” say, “nope, but I am trusted”.

If you want to lead anything, including yourself you must practice the essential art of re-visioning.

This past weekend I had the opportunity to share vision with Freedom Church. As a new church plant we have had 29 weekend gatherings (20 since launch) and as I look back I have shared what I would consider “the vision of the church” in 10 of those weekends as the whole sermon and pieces of the vision in at least 6 more weekends.

Why? Because Vision not only has to be cast, but re-cast over and over again for a few reasons:

1. People forget. We all forget. A seasoned elder of our church came up to me after this last sermon and said, “Thank you, I needed to hear that again”.

2. People don’t attend every weekend. I know all Pastors wished they did, but the truth is even the most consistent among our churches miss once every few months and then also serve in children’s once a month.

3. People not only forget they re-write. After we forget we start to write our own version of the vision. We recast in order to throw out some of the ideas that have come in unknowingly.

4. People are new. We have new people every weekend at Freedom Church and they have not heard the vision. How can they get on board if we do not recast.

Recasting the vision is an essential art. The key is to cast it fresh, make changes when needed (we never change our Mission at Freedom Church, but the Vision can be changed)

When is the last time you shared your vision with those who follow you? The skill and habit of re-visioning is a lost art in churches, businesses and familes. This post will remind us why we must share often then again.