About two months ago I sat down with my counselor. (By the way every church planter should have a counselor) and was telling him about some of the “stuff” that was just nagging me.

I found myself a few months into planting Freedom Church starting to worry every Sunday about who would show up. I would sit in the back room where I pray and prepare to preach and rather than praying and preparing I was peeking. Peeking out of the window to see if any cars were coming!

Then finally I caught myself. What was I doing? To combat this craziness I decided to do some self-talk and self-convincing. “I don’t care how many people come”, I told myself, “I need to be completely satisfied if God chooses not to use this church to reach thousands of people”, I thought.

So on a Thursday afternoon I told my counselor about this. I was proud to report to him that I had identified and conquered this deal…without him! That’s when he surprised me. “Shawn”, he said, “That is a lie.”

“I’m sorry what? What is a lie?”, I stammered.

“Why did you plant a church if you don’t think God wants to use it to reach people?” he asked. Good Question. In fact that was the only reason I had planted a church.

Then he looked me in the eyes the way a counselor can without making you feel creepy and he asked me a question I had never been asked, “Why did God want YOU to plant freedom church?” he said.

“So people far from him could find Freedom in Christ” I rattled off our vision statement.

“No”. He said.

“So that the people on the Dream Team would be able to be a part of a great vison”, I tried again.

“No”. He said.

After about three more tries I said, “I give up – you tell me, why?”

“Because he loves you” he said in a way that made tears well up in my eyes.

“Say that outloud” he said.

“God loves me”, I whispered.

Then I had this thought. If God loves me then don’t you think he loves all the people of Berkeley County that don’t go to church. And if he loves them don’t you think he loves our Dream Team and if that is the case I am betting he wants to use us in a mjor way and that we will be amazed at what God is going to do through us and yes, that includes Him building a BIG church out of all of these folks he loves.

So why am I worrying? It’s God’s idea. It’s God who started this thing. It’s God who is going to make it grow. It’s God who takes my simple inviation to a friend and has them say, “yes”.

For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Philippians 2:13 ESV

It’s a brand new year with a brand new vision of writing more on my blog. Every Sunday I plan on letting you know what is coming up so you can see if there is anything that interests you. Here is the line-up for this week:

Monday January 2, 2012 – It is God who…
Do you ever get discouraged with the results in your life. At work, on a project or even with your family? This post will help you remember who is on your side.

Tuesday January 3, 2012 – The Essential art of Re-Visioning
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.

Wednesday January 4, 2012 – Striving for Marginal Behavior
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.

Thursday January 5, 2012 – Growing Connective Tissue in Preaching
In preaching what my friend Glenn Lucke calls “Connective Tissue” is the stuff that holds all the bones of theology together. This post will help preachers grow that tissue.

Friday January 6, 2012 – Have You Started Planning For Easter?
I know we just started the year, but as you are planning take special note – Easter is coming. How can you start now preparing for the harvest that Easter can be? This post will give some practical tips on planning Easter.

Saturday January 7, 2012 – The Open Windows of Parenting
One of the hardest things in parenting is getting into the heart of your child. Every now an then they leave an open window. This post will talk about how to recognize that window and use this inviation into their hearts to help cultivate a heart towards Jesus.

I know I am late to the party but I learned last week that Google has decided to not offer non-profit status to churches.  As I thought about this my first reaction was to be aggravated and feel somehow slighted.  Then I thought about it and I think I am actually support this move.  Here is why?

1.  They are a business and they can do anything they want to.
I really do not want to have to acquiesce to Google in anyway as a church and therefore I don’t think they should have to for me.

2.  They have certain values as a business and need to live them out.  In making this decision they are living out one of these values.
More people should be as committed to living out what they believe.  In fact if the church was as committed to our values it would be a good thing.

3.  The church has gotten very concerned with “receiving” things at a discount and has come to see it as a right. We do fund-raisers from our community rather than giving to our community.  We want Google to give is their products at a discounted rate, we ask for freebies and discounts.  I am not against us taking NPO discounts when we can and it would not be wise not too, but we should not see it as a right but a gift.  You don’t boycott people because they stop giving a gift.

4.  Google is not a Christian company.
Although there are Christians who work for Google as an organization they are not “Christian” so why would we expect them to act as if they are.  Our mission should then be to show the love of Christ to them when they persecute us because of our beliefs.  I think Jesus said it best in Matthew 5 when he told us to pray for those who persecute us.

Our response to people and companies should always point them to the gospel.  So with that said I will be paying for a great product called Google Apps with joy.  It is worth every penny and they owe Freedom Church nothing.

I wanted to take a minute to share an opportunity with you for anyone who might be exploring full-time vocational ministry. If you feel like this is a calling God has put on your life, check out the opportunity below in the words of Ernest Smith who is in charge of the program.
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -
Jesus said “the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few” (Luke 10:2). If this is true, that the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few, then it should be the job of the church to raise up the saints within the body. Seacoast Church takes this responsibility seriously and in response has created a 9 month internship to help develop and prepare laborers to send into the field.

Seacoast’s All-Access internship was created three years ago by Pastor Mac Lake in an effort to better equip and train future pastors and ministry leaders. Over the last three years, All-Access has continually grown and developed into an internship that specifically focuses on 8 core competencies of ministry, allowing each intern to not only gain wisdom on how to conduct ministry, but the experiences needed to implement the truths being learned.

As a part of the program, interns will participate in the following:

• weekly theological reading and discussions with other interns and pastors
• monthly mentoring
• weekly ministry experience within a specific ministry of choice
• weekly interviews with Seacoast pastors and other ministry leaders around the United States
• participation in special events and conferences
• opportunity to plan and execute a large community outreach as a team
• many other opportunities to learn and grow in a large, cutting-edge, multi-site church

If you believe that God may be calling you into full-time vocational ministry or have a desire to grow deeper in your leadership with the church, then we would encourage you to check out Seacoast’s All-Access internship. For more information, follow the link below or contact Pastor Ernest Smith directly.

All applications are due by August 12th for the 2011-2012 program.

For more information: http://seacoa.st/allaccess
Or contact Ernest Smith via email: ernestsmith at seacoast dot org or twitter: Ernest_Smith

Overwhelmed:
I am overwhelmed by all the things the Freedom Church launch team learned at Elevation this weekend. We will be taking some time to process much of this and see how it fits into our mold and vision.  I am also overwhelmed by the sacrificial financial gift that Pastor Steven and his tea gave us in the face of starting two new campuses themselves.  The mark of Elevation Church will forever be on Freedom Church. A huge Thank You.

Convinced:
One thing I left Elevation even more convinced of is our need for excellent children’s ministry. I don’t care how much time you put into your adult worship if parents are not trusting of your security system, able to trust their children are being discipled and then bottom line – their kids want to come back, then you are wasting your time.  Thankful for Elevation modeling this to us.

Anticipation:
I am eagerly anticipating how God is going to answer a huge audacious prayer I have been praying for my family and our church this weekend as we have our last “Launch Freedom” offering. As a part of this I have asked my friends here on the blog, facebook and twitter to consider buying a chair to support thise who are not even at Freedom Church yet.  We are asking for you to buy 100 more chairs so  you can still do that here.

As many of you know we are in the midst of planting a church in Moncks Corner, SC that will exist to see people far from God find Freedom through Jesus.  We are about 6 weeks or so into this adventure and things are moving at a rapid pace.

One of the things I have been really cognizant of is that we are in the DNA stage as a church.  Conceived on May 22nd 2011 with a launch of August 21st we have three tri-mesters of 30 days (yes, that is 90 days from idea to launch – that’s how we roll in the corner baby) and now we are in our second tri-mester.  The morning sickness has stopped (well except for me on Sunday mornings) and we are starting to see hands, feet and features really develop.

Our DNA as a church is being set up and it will last a really long time.  Anyone who has ever tried to transition an established church knows that the DNA can stick around for a very long time!

One of the very strong strands of DNA that I feel like God has given me a vision for is that we will not have any volunteers at Freedom Church.  None.  No children’s ministry volunteers.  No tech volunteers.  Not even parking or greeters will be volunteers. [box]The vision is too big and the prize is way too large to leave up to volunteers.[/box]

No more volunteers.

We want disciples.
I know, I know.  It feels like simantics that a guy who writes books could spin for a great best seller, but hear me out.

Volunteers help.
Disciples create.

Volunteers need to love what they do.
Disciples love the house.

Volunteers don’t show up and expect you will find another volunteer.
Disciples are discipling and replace themselves.

Volunteers are on a team.
Disciples are on your team.

Volunteers eventually burn out.
Disciples grow and take on more territory.

It will take longer to develop disciples.  It may even delay our growth at times.  But in the end if we have people who are saved by Jesus, sold out to the house and living life-to-life with others in a discipling relationship Freedom Church will be better for it.

[box type="info"]A great resource is “Building a Discipling Culture” by Mike Breen available at www.weare3dm.com [/box]

I had a chance to attend the all-staff meeting at Seacoast Church today and I felt like the teaching that Pastor Greg shared was extremely applicable to all churches and wanted to share some notes with you with my additional thoughts.

When we don’t belong it can be very frustrating.  As a new person to a church it can actually be very discouraging.

Made me think about the fact that when new people come to Freedom Church they come with hope.

- hope that the hurts in life will be healed and they are needing to experience God

- hope that relationships will be found or healed.

- hope that loneliness will be filled with community.

- hope that in moving to a new place they will find new community.

Bottom line, hoping they will fit.  Hoping that they will belong. Hoping that they will not be rejected.  It is a Scary place to be.

Here area a few things we know about belonging.

1.  Everyone has a desire to belong.

This seems to be hard wired in our soul.  We are all looking for community and a place to belong.

2.  Most people need help belonging.

There are a few people who naturally belong.  They are the big presence in a room.  They meet people very easily and they honestly do not need help finding a community.  You (they) are the exception.  Most people need a little help and given to their own personality and temperament they will show up to church a few times, not really connect and get frustrated and leave.  This is not acceptable.

3.  The Pathway to belonging must be simple, visible and repeatable.

To help people we need a pathway to community that is simple. Just a few steps and you will have the opportunity to be connected.  It has to be visible so that when people attend on the weekend there is a visible pathway to get connected in a community group, serving and ultimately a pathway to membership.  We will be assembling a team to help us with this pathway.

4.  When people feel like they belong they become contributing members of the group.

Our goal is a fully engaged, fully contributing and fully connected member of our family (community).

5.  If the belonging itch is not scratched they will not hang around long.

As a church we will have people leave.  People will become disheartened for good reason.  Some people will just feel a prompting of God to join another church family – which we will applaud!  But people leaving because they were not helped to connect breaks my heart.

6.  God has trusted us with his most valuable possessions. (people)

We will a lot of  things as a church.  We have great worship on the weekend.  We have great children’s ministry.  All of our efforts are to see people connect with God and others in order to find freedom through Jesus.  People are God’s greatest possession and often as Pastors we fall into the trap of being bothered by people rather than seeing them as the most important thing to God.

We need to assimilate people into our church where they can belong and be connected to God resulting in transformation.

I have only been a church planter for about a month but I am learning a ton about myself through the process.  If you are considering church planting maybe you can take a few things from my first 30 days.  Here are a couple of things that I am learning about church planting:

1.  Do not underestimate training.

I cannot imagine trying to church plant 10 years ago prior to my time at Seacoast.  If God has called you to church plant take the time to sit under a great Pastor at a great church and learn.  Don’t short-circuit God’s plan for your life by being in a rush. There are exceptions I am sure, but you are probably not it.

2.  Do not underestimate how much it hurts when people choose “no”.

I have to be honest and say that I did not think it would hurt as much as it does when people say no to the vision.  But to be truthful it kinda feels like someone telling you that your baby is ugly when they tell you they want to leave your launch team or not be involved.  I know it’s best that everyone be where they need to be.  I know that God will use them better in a church where they will connect and fit in better.  I know that some people will just not find Freedom Church to be the church where God will use them best.  But it still hurts.

3.  Do not underestimate how much more weight you carry as the Lead Pastor.

If you are not the Lead Pastor please take the time frequently to go and thank the lead pastor you serve under for carrying the weight that he does.  I am so grateful to have watched Greg Surratt handle this weight with grace and faith.I have entered this having counted the costs because of his influence.  I could not have withstood this load a couple of years ago.

4.  Do not understimate how stinkin’ fun it is.

I am right in the middle of where God has called me to be.  That is fun stuff. I see a lot of Church Planters that let the three previous statements rule them rather than the fact that they get to start a church.  Rather than the fact that they will see lives changed for Jesus. I have been hurt and carried a huge load already in just 30 days (I know, I know – I have just begun but its all I know), but I have also been having as much fun as I have ever had in my life.

I am a newbie and I will probably re-write this post 30 times in the next 3 months, but one month in that is where I am.

How is God using a new thing in your life to challenge you?

Over the last ten years I have had the opportunity to get to meet a ton of people online. Because of the power of Facebook, Twitter and my blog there are a few thousand of you that I feel like “know” me and have in some way been a part of my life.

I want to ask you a favor.  It’s an unconventional favor because it will do absolutely nothing for you and you will probably never even get to see the results of your willingness to help.

Would you consider helping to give freedom to hundred’s of people in Moncks Corner, SC by buying a chair for someone from our community to sit in.  Here is the very cool deal…we are going to share these chairs with the local school that we will be meeting in so they can have a little better experience at their large meetings as well.

So here is the deal.  if you want to help Freedom Church you can make a tax deductable donation of $35 per chair…maybe you could consider buying one for each member of your family and praying for the person who will sit in that chair when you think about Freedom Church…We would be honored!

You can buy a chair by clicking here: BUY A CHAIR TO HELP GIVE FREEDOM

The Accidental Creative: How To Be Brilliant at a Moment’s Notice from Accidental Creative on Vimeo.

Every now and then I email people that I think of as “superstars” in my world just to see what will happen.  More often than not I never hear back.  Mark Cuban I am still waiting bro.

But to my great surprise Todd Henry emailed back and was quite extraordinarily ordinary.

Todd Henry is the founder and CEO of Accidental Creative where he helps creatives and teams be prolific, brilliant and healthy. He regularly speaks at companies and conferences about how to build practices that lead to better ideas.

Todd’s 7 word bio is “An arms dealer for the creative revolution.”

Over the past year or so we have emailed and tweeted back and forth a few times and when I saw his book was coming out I thought, “we NEED to help him get introduced to our whole community, not just the cool people like Carlos Whittaker who has a life-sized poster of Todd on his tour bus. So…here is the deal..

Todd’s book, The Accidental Creative is releasing July 7th and I want everyone I know to pre-order it!  So we are giving you a little incentive.