missio

Following up on Tadd’s post (here), I’d like to expound on what all went on at the Regional. First of all, if you’re looking for a group that really loves people, and wants to equip leaders to love people, head over to your nearest a29 regional. You will not be disappointed, I promise. Ours was at Vintage21 (link), and was very impressive. But first, a story!

I left Greenville at 10:00. It takes about an hour and a half to get to Raleigh. I allowed for about 30min in case something happened. Which it did. Between Greenville, NC and the other side of Interstate 95 there is nothing. No gas stations, no restaurants, nothing. And I ran out of gas directly on the Interstate 95 overpass. On my way to my first church planting gathering. It could’ve easily been taken as a sign: hey, you’re not a church planter. But I didn’t. I’m created in God’s image, right? I took it as a joke. I’m funny, God’s funny. No problem. So I called Miranda, see if we had any kind of emergency roadside assistance, that sort of thing. Nothing. So then I prayed (which in retrospect, I should’ve done first). Of course, the car starts up, I go another 5 miles to the closest gas station, fill up and arrive at the regional early, and considerably before Tadd.
After administrative stuff is gotten out of the way, Tyler Jones (pastor of Vintage 21) gets up and talks about relentlessness. When I got home, I told Miranda that I knew I was where I was meant to be when he (Tyler) gets up there and immediately goes to the Bible. So many conferences I’ve been to prior wanted to immediately talk about what was trendy, hip, or cool.  He talked about a guiding question being “What is it you hope for?” From there, he talks about conviction as a pastor, for sexual sins, arrogance, and the ability to both challenge and be challenged. He then talked about the tendency for pastors to slip into a professional following, and not a personal following. That realization should be followed by repentance, which leads to redemption. All in order to honor and glorify our King, Jesus Christ.

After that, he gave us a very powerful statement: church planting is hard! We turned to 1 Samuel 13:24 and 1 Samuel 14. As a small church, 2-3 shots to the body will kill you. We need to figure out what those shots are, and what can kill us. A few examples:

• No home groups.
• No teachers.
• Growth, or lack thereof (interesting point here: growth can be just as dangerous [if not more] than no growth)
• Lack of resources
• Time
• Counseling
• Youthful Mindset
• People period.

Bottom line? If you preach Christ and the Gospel, your church will be messy.

Some keys to avoid being shot up like some sort of ecclesiological drive by?

• Bring someone with you (a man, and definitely not your wife)
• Have a group of peers/elders
• Grow up
• Have oversight.

Another point? Don’t run back to your father, like Jonathan avoids in the Scripture. This is my take: if you’re always running back, you’ll never move forward.

And Tyler’s closing thought? An awesome one.

As a lead church planter, you’re a rock star, and can be replaced in a second. 

This really reminded me of Andy Stanley’s talk at Catalyst. He said leadership is a stewardship, it’s temporary, and we’re accountable. Same premise, different communiques.

I’m going to split these notes up. In Part II, I’m going to review Matt Stevens’ talk on Creativity in the Local Church.