Announcement This Sunday

I’ll be making a BIG ANNOUNCEMENT this Sunday in regards to our new meeting location.

To hold you over until then…here is a picture of the auditorium where we will be meeting. This place is awesome. I’m really excited about this new location. God absolutely opened the door for us. I can’t wait to share the story with you on Sunday!

What I Don’t Love About Church Planting (Part 2 of 2)

I wrote yesterday about what I love about church planting. There are however a few things that I don’t love about church planting…

• I don’t love being at the mercy of a landlord that can pull our meeting place out from under us at any time.
• I don’t love not having a facility during the week for meetings, band practices, etc.
• I don’t love the fact that we have a limited amount of people to do so much.
• I don’t love the fact that some churches/pastors view us as a threat or competition to them.
• I don’t love the fact that I have to learn to be patient and wait on God for some lots of things.
• I don’t love 501(c)(3) paperwork, non-profit postage applications, and the many hours of pouring over legal documents to become “official”.
• I don’t love being the graphic designer & webmaster. I can’t wait ’til God sends us some talented people that have a passion for these areas.

Church planters, what things do you NOT LOVE about church planting?

What I Love About Church Planting (Part 1 of 2)

• I love seeing the disconnected getting connected with Jesus.
• I love the anticipation of seeing new people come each week.
• I love the anticipation of seeing new people come back the following week.
• I love the fact that we have a clean sheet of paper to work with.
• I love the fact that when we don’t like what’s on the paper, we can crumble it up and start a new one.
• I love seeing our people work together as a team during set up and tear down.
• I love the rush of knowing that God is taking us somewhere, but not knowing completely where He is taking us.
• I love the fact that our structure allows me to lead.
• I love the fact that because we are new, I don’t hear anyone saying “we never did it that way before.”
• I love seeing new friendships being formed.
• I love the fact that being portable keeps us focused on “Being the Church”, instead of “Paying for the Church building.”
• I love going to bed at night knowing that I am doing exactly what God wants me to do.

Church planters, what do you LOVE about church planting?

Portable Pro’s & Con’s

We are a mobile church…a church without a permanent home. It comes with both pro’s and con’s. Let’s look at them…

Pro’s…
1. It helps us stay focused on “being the church”. Relationships are stronger and our sense of mission is strong. Our view of
what church is, is “people”, not “buildings”.

2. There is a natural anti-polarizing effect when meeting in a school, or a theater, or any public place. It’s neutral ground. It
challenges the view of what church is to the unchurched. Church buildings sometimes polarize “the Church” from “the
World” and the two don’t naturally collide with each other.

3. It forces us to be resourceful and creative. How do you create atmosphere in a high school cafeteria. It takes work to
eliminate distractions and create an environment where people can come and meet God. It’s amazing what curtains can
do!

4. It raises the bar of commitment in the people who are serving. It takes a lot of commited people that are willing to show
up several hours before the service to set everything up and then tear everything down, for a service that lasts 1 hour and
15 minutes. The volunteers understand that without their hard work and commitment, we wouldn’t be able to pull off
what we pull off.

5. It keeps us from being too comfortable. The more comfortable we are, the more complacent we become. It keeps us on
our toes, knowing that at any moment we might have to find a new meeting place.

Con’s…
1. It costs a lot of money to rent a school for a 1 hour and 15 minute meeting each week.

2. It costs even more money to have an office space or a place for ministry to happen during the week.

3. Unfortunately, sometimes your reputation as a viable church is measured by…if you have a building or not.

There are probably more pro’s & con’s, but these are the main ones for me.