18 Aug Partnering to Start Churches

Darrel Bosworth, Pastor, Kilpatrick UB Church (Woodland, Mich.)
I’m a member of the West Michigan LEAD team, which is focused on supporting the Imagine This church plant in Grand Ledge, Mich. Mike Caley, another member of that LEAD team, wrote about it previously.

My church, Kilpatrick, has been speaking and talking a lot in the last two years about getting beyond ourselves. We ask, “Who are you talking to about Christ in your workplace?”

We’re in the LEAD team to try to build some of that missional DNA about birthing churches into our congregation. We’re not in a position to plant a church on our own, but through the LEAD team, we can partner with other churches to do it.

As a LEAD team, our purposes are:

• To launch a new church every two years. That probably won’t happen for us in this first stage, but that’s our hope.
• To gain a win for Imagine This. We talk about birthing a church every two years, but we decided we’re not going to abandon ship until we know they’re up and going, even if it means continuing support for more than two years.
• To support Imagine This by giving money and, when applicable, people (some churches are located too far away).
• To meet six times a year to encourage and pray for the planter, Gordon Kettel.
• To be a pilot for future LEAD teams. A second LEAD team is forming in southern Michigan.
• To help churches understand that birthing a church is a natural part of the reproduction process of a healthy church.

We’ve begun considering where to plant the next church. In Michigan, a number of United Brethren churches are located on the I-96 corridor from Fowlerville to Grand Rapids. We’re looking at some places there.

16 Aug Traveling Music

I keep a lot of CDs in my car. I mostly listen to Christian stuff, but I also have a lot of bluegrass. I enjoy listening to the Gaither Vocal Band. I became aware of Linda Randall on one of the Gaither Homecoming videos, and bought her CD. Her songs really speak to me. 

God on the Mountain. I love that song. I’ll put it in and keep repeating it for 30 miles, because it really touches me. The gist is that the God you meet on the mountaintop is the same God who will be with you in the valley. You have pain and hurt in the valley, but it’s the same God.  I’ve been through a lot of valley experiences in my life, with health issues, and that song has meant a lot to me. 

I have some Ray Charles music, a lot of stuff from Hank Williams, Sr., and some music by Cowboy Copas, my cousin, who was a star on the Grand Ole Oprey. Then I have some tapes that trace the history of country music.

I do listen to some talk radio when I travel, but only until it makes me mad. Then I turn it off and put in a tape. 

What kind of music do you listen to in the car?

13 Aug Getting Intentional in Outreach

As pastor of Mainstreet Church, I told the staff that we needed to take the lead in reaching non-Christians. We needed to look for redemptive opportunities.

I started going to the same barber every two weeks. He wasn’t a believer, which is why I went there. He didn’t come to faith, but I always felt he was getting close. I went to the same gas station, same coffee shop.

Our youth pastor got involved in sports leaves run by the community. Rather than fight them, let’s get involved with them. He would go to soccer games, meet people who didn’t know Christ, and try to reach them.

What are you doing to intentionally create relationships with non-Christians? Post a comment.

12 Aug Thinking of Building? Stop!

In our travels I have heard rumors of a few of our smaller to medium sized churches discussing plans to build. That concerns me. Having led one church through two major building projects and another through major renovations, I know a little about the processes and impact such a move can have.

Several factors suggest that building more buildings is not always the wise decision to make as a steward of the Lord:

• The state of today’s economy.
• The fact that most of our churches, even those who are discussing building, are virtually stagnant or in decline.
• The availability of creative new solutions that were not available even a few years ago.

But if you are still discussing building, please STOP and ask the following questions.

Can you present a clear rationale that answers these questions:

• Why are you building?
• What are you building?

I have heard of and talked to churches that erected buildings, and when the leaders were asked what it would be used for, they answered that they thought it would be a good part of their facility to have. No strategy. No plan.

If you cannot clearly communicate what will take place in that building once it is completed and how it will help you achieve your vision, DON’T BUILD!

2. Have you exhausted ALL avenues of meeting the need for which you are building?

Many churches only look at one solution for their need.

• Could you double use your currently rooms with some flexibility in meeting times?
• Are there other facilities nearby that could be used or rented to meet the need?
• Is there a way to do a video venue to another part of your building to solve your over-crowding in worship?
• Is there any way to do something short of building another building?

3. Is there another church in the area you can partner with rather than build?

The Body of Christ (all believing churches) has literally billions of dollars of assets sitting woefully underused across this country. If turf wars could end and barriers between fellowships would cease, we could work together to accomplish something great. Church is about relationships and transformational change, not buildings. So could you use a resource another church has that they would make available to meet your goals and needs?

There are other good questions to ask but these can get you thinking. Remember, people draw people. Relationships, not buildings, are the most important thing. And the only reason to build something is if that building will provide the most effective means of accomplishing your goals.

07 Aug What is the Governance System?

We encourage churches to adopt a governance system. What does that mean? 

In a management model, the board says, “Pastor, you’re responsible to lead, but you can’t do anything without our permission.” When you’re given responsibility, but not authority to act, it’s called a bureaucracy.

One pastor needed board approval before he could buy something which was already in the budget. “That doesn’t make sense,” he told them. They said they honestly hadn’t thought of it that way. 

The governance system (which is explained in the book “Winning on Purpose”), follows this pattern: the board governs, the pastor leads, the staff manages, and the people minister. 

The pastor is given responsibility with authority–but there is accountability. Most boards control how the pastor does ministry. But in churches that have adopted the governance system, we’ve heard pastors say, “I’ve never been more free to lead, but I’ve never been held this accountable.” 

05 Aug Joined at the Hip

I heard  a complaint, though to me it was a compliment. Someone said, “We heard you talk, then we heart Pat Jones talk, and we heard the same thing.”

So? That’s the way it should be.

I wouldn’t have wanted to do this job without Pat Jones, the Director of Healthy Church Ministries. He’s a great asset. I want you to know that we’re locked at the hip. If you get one, you get the other. Pat and I don’t have secrets–what he knows, I know. This relationship has been a great thing for me. We keep each other halfway decent.

02 Aug How Times Have…Not Changed

Here are two comments people made about new music sung in church. Both are taken from Dan Kimball’s blog.

“I am no music scholar, but I feel I know appropriate church music when I hear it.  Last Sunday’s new hymn–if you can call it that–sounded like a sentimental love ballad one would expect to hear crooned in a saloon. If you insist on exposing us to rubbish like this–in God’s house!–don’t be surprised if many of the faithful look for a new place to worship. The hymns we grew up with are all we need.”

“What is wrong with the inspiring hymns with which we grew up? When I go to church, it is to worship God, not to be distracted with learning a new hymn.  Last Sunday’s was particularly unnerving.  The tune was un-singable and the new harmonies were quite distorting.”

The first comment was written in 1863 in reference to the hymn “Just As I Am.” The target of the second comment, from 1890, was “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.”

30 Jul So Many Good Books

I love books. I keep a lot of books at home, and I’ve given away a lot of books. Someone told me that a person who can read but doesn’t is no better off than a person who can’t read at all. Books can open up your mind and vista. You can do things by reading a book, be translated to somewhere else. That’s the magic of books.

Christian men are notoriously bad about not reading. At Scripture Press, when we produced a book for men, we had to use a cover with a soft design that would attract a woman, who would then buy it for a man. Women, we knew, buy more books than men, even books for men.

At Mainstreet, I was always after people to read. I gave the elders books to read, theology books. There are so many good Christian books.

28 Jul Getting People Into the Pipeline

At Mainstreet Church, I used a big PVC pipe to illustrate the disciple-making process. Outside the pipe are people who don’t even acknowledge that God exists. But once they realize there is a God, they enter the pipeline, and we try to move them along–

• realizing a need for God
• learning about Jesus
• realizing their need for Jesus
• giving their life to Christ
• and then growing.

It’s all part of the journey through the discipleship pipeline.

After a person came to Christ, I would tell him, “You need to go back to your non-religious friends and get them in the pipeline with you.”

“How do I do that?”

“Tell them what you did.”

So they’d come to church with someone on their arm, and would walk with them through the process.

Spiritual maturity is not measured by what you know, but by who is on your arm and heart on Sunday. If you don’t have someone on your arm and heart, don’t talk to me about your maturity.