Scott Whitaker

StonePoint Podcast

2007-06-12T20:36:00.000-04:00

We're podcasting now. We still have some gliches we're working through. We're trying to get it down to 1mb per minute. Got any suggestions? We're recording at 16bit 44100hz.
Here's the feed to subscribe with iTunes http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=257351589 Or you can download it through our website at http://www.stonepointchurch.com/podcasts/podcasts.php.

More About This Past Weekend!

2007-06-04T16:28:00.001-04:00

Tadd Grandstaff has a great post about StonePoint on his blog here. Thanks for the shout out! We have a great team of staff and volunteers that works hard every weekend!
Tadd is probably one of the most well travelled church planters. He's visited more church plants than anyone I know. Tadd saying what he did makes me proud of my staff and volunteers! They're awesome!
Tadd also posted some pics of StonePoint here.

There are some pics of the Baby Shower here.

"I'm Jacked!"

2007-06-03T21:21:00.000-04:00

Today was an awesome day:

I got to take my first Sunday off since we launched! Man I needed it.
Tadd Grandstaff knocked it out of the park today. It was great having him and his staff with us.
StonePoint threw a "Baby Shower" for Tadd's church (Pine Ridge). I couldn't be more proud of our people. I'm sure Tadd will be posting some pics soon.
It was great to give back to another new church what was done to us!
Our band rocks! Today they did "Meant to Live" by Switchfoot and we opened with "Times Like These" by the Foo Fighters.
I'm taking three Sundays off this summer.

By the way, every church planter should ask a church to throw a Baby Shower for them. StonePoint was given two showers and they totally provided for our nursery and preschool ministries. All you have to do is register at Target or Wal-Mart like you would for a normal Baby Shower. Go here and buy Pine Ridge a gift from their registry! (It looks like they didn't receive much, that's because not everything was marked off the registry.)

Ed Young Video Blog

2007-05-17T12:32:00.000-04:00

If you haven't seen it yet, you need to check out Ed Young's Video Blog. And before you go thinking it's your typical, creative, high energy, Ed Young alliterating video check it out.
It's raw, unplugged and authentic.

Restaffing

2007-05-07T16:52:00.000-04:00

After I restructured I restaffed around our structure. My staff looks like this:

Executive Assistant: someone to take some miscellaneous projects off me. She also takes care of everything "Front of House." Someone to call and say "will you do this?" Her name is Lori and she's doing an awesome job! She was baptized in December and is sold out on this vision for StonePoint. She's part time and paid like a coordinator.

Office Manager: this coordinator takes care of "Back Stage" items. Christa has been with us from the beginning. She started out as a launch team member and joined our staff. Another person who just gets the vision!

Worship Coordinator: we've moved away from having a Worship Pastor and onto a Coordinator. Jon takes care of everything "On Stage." We have a phenomenal band that leads us in worship every weekend. We figured we would play to our strengths and let the band lead and have someone take care of everything on stage. Essentially, everything in our worhsip theater belongs to Jon.

Elementary Coordinator: from the beginning we've had Josh who has led our Elementary kids. This guy loves kids and kids love his theater! It could be a long time before we hire a full time staff member for our kids. This guy is doing great!

Preschool Coordinator: Betsy was one of my students when I did Youth Ministry. Just the other day we were talking and she said the best decision she ever made was to come to work at StonePoint. Makes me proud. She's doing great. She's a college student who works her butt off and has yet to turn in a receipt for the preschool ministry. She doesn't get paid much so we make sure that she gets lots of home cooked meals!

There are four staff levels at StonePoint:
Volunteer: unpaid staff member
Coordinator: paid volunteer. Paid because we want to hold them to a higher level of accountability and they have a different level of decision making. Expected 10-15 hours a week.
Part Time: it's just that, part time work and part time pay. Expected 15-30 hours a week.
Full Time: 40-60 hours a week

Currently we have on average 40 volunteer positions a weekend. We have 5 coordinators (although many of them give way more than 15 hours) and one full timer. One of our next moves is to move some of our coordinators to part time. I've found that we are getting just as much done through many people instead of having fewer people do more. Plus it helps the budget.

Restructuring

2007-05-07T16:33:00.000-04:00

I'm a big believer that some sort of change precedes growth. Not all change leads to growth, but some sort of change must take place for growth to happen. We've recently restructured in order to position ourselves for growth through the summer and fall.

When we started, we were "task based." Essentially, what needs to be done and get somebody to do it. Well, that sort of structure won't sustain growth. So we've recently restructured around two functions: 1) The Weekend Service and 2) Small Groups.

Within the weekend service we have three categories: A) On Stage B) Back Stage C) Front of House.

Within Small Groups we have two categories: A) Home Teams B) Community Groups.

That's IT!

If you're looking for a great way to map out a structure, thoughts or ideas there is a free software called Mindomo. You can save it and create multiple mindmaps.

Billboards

2007-05-07T16:20:00.000-04:00

We've got a great opportunity to get a billboard. Anybody have any experience wtih them. I'm interested in finding out.

No Kids Allowed

2007-05-07T16:10:00.000-04:00

We've gone to a new policy of not allowing kids into our adult worship service.

We have two goals for kids:

1) They love God and

2) They love coming to church.

We want every kid to learn about God's love and what it means to have a relationship with Him. We also want every kid to love coming to church. This is based on Matthew 19:14: "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Our adult worship service is a hindrance to kids and we're not drawing kids to Christ.

Most adults, who have attended church as a kid, thought the church was boring and were forced to go. Even now, there are churches where kids won't go because they think it is boring.

We've taken seriously the compliments of parents and kids that we have an awesome kids ministry. We get compliments every weekend. Because of the great comments we experience, we realize we do a disservice to kids by allowing them into the adult worship service. If we allow them in, they won't learn to love God and won't learn to love the church.

We recognize that we're a church for anyone, but not for everyone. If people want to go to some other church where they can take their kids in the service, we encourage it. Let some other church bore their kids, we're not!

I've found that its Christians who want to take their kids in the service, the unchurched just want to know that we have a secure ministry and if they are needed they can be reached during the service. So we approach people on those two levels. We try to help the unchurched gain confidence in us and we try to help Christians realize their obligation to not hinder their kids worship. That's why its called kid's worship and adult worship.

New Website

2007-05-07T16:07:00.000-04:00

I'm digging our new website. We've been using O2Graphic Design for some time now for our marketing and graphics. Karen and Chris are great! They're still putting the final touches on the site.

New Partners

2007-05-07T15:49:00.000-04:00

I'm blown a way by what God is doing and has already done at StonePoint. We've experienced great growth since we launched. We're almost a year old and a number of people have come to Christ.
We've already partnered with New Community Church and are partnering with Tadd Grandstaff and Pine Ridge Church. Tadd and his staff are coming in and we're going to throw them a baby shower for their children's ministry. We are grateful to two churches for doing this for us. We didn't have to buy a thing for our children's minstry because of it! We're 9 months old and still have diapers from the gifts they bought us. We're excited to partner and do this for another new church!
Check out their gift registry and buy Pine Ridge a gift!

My Delayed Thoughts On National New Church

2007-05-07T15:43:00.000-04:00

I enjoyed the conference but more than anything else got to hang out with some guys. I think it was the first time we all got to hang out together, all at the same time. We laughed our tails off! Tony McCollum, Bob Franquiz, Tadd Grandstaff & Gary Lamb, you guys rock!
I also got to hang with a guy I grew up with. He launched New Community Church and is doing awesome. It was great to spend some time with him and his staff.
By the way, the conference wasn't bad either.

New Office

2007-05-07T15:39:00.000-04:00

We finally got an office. I've been in virtual office mode for a while and it was time for us to get an office. We moved in May 1st. It's great. I still hang around the coffee shops to get out in the community. I shared yesterday with StonePointers that we've set up a central command so we can do everything we can to prevent people from going to hell from Coweta County!

It's Been A While...

2007-05-07T15:38:00.000-04:00

...Since I've posted so I'm going to do a number of brief posts.

Joost!

2007-05-07T15:29:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Tony Morgan for the Joost Invite. I've never met Tony, but saw his post on Joost and thought I'd see if I could get an invite and he did. So to continue the giving, I gave Tony McCollum one and will give away three more if you send me an email at swhitakerATstonepointchurch.com.

Worship Leader Magazine

2007-03-30T16:58:00.000-04:00

StonePoint was recently featured in Worship Leader Magazine. Kent Morris did an article on us and how our approach to portable church in a theater. It's a great article and has seven tips on being portable and working with a theater (see page 70.)

We enjoy a great relationship with our movie theater. We are coming to the end of a one year contract and are looking to go to a month to month contract. The local management has told me personally, "We want you guys to stay." We want to stay but we are keeping our options open as God continues to grow His church. From my understanding, only a small percentage of theater churches run over 500 people (not including multi-site churches.)

By the way, if you're looking for equipment Kent Morris equips churches of all sizes. The guy is phenomenal! Drop me an email if you're wanting to contact him.

Our Logo Goes Permanent!

2007-03-25T20:52:00.000-04:00

One of our families was celebrating the 18th Birthday of their son, Zach (Happy Birthday Zach!), and for his birthday Zach wanted a tattoo. So he got this one!

Then I found out that his dad, Jeff, got this one! That's our logo!

This family is freakin awesome! They're one of those families that make you glad you start a church. We baptized Lori (mom & wife) back in December along with her daughter Ashley! Lori also joined our staff and has been doing an awesome job! God is doing a great work in their lives!

No Email & No Website

2007-03-22T20:58:00.000-04:00

The servers are down! For the past two days no email and no website. Man I'm ticked!

There Are Still People. . .

2007-03-19T21:29:00.000-04:00

...who have NEVER heard the Gospel or even been inside of a church in the "Bible belt." I get tired of hearing people talk about the Bible belt as if people as if everyone goes to church. I am fed up with it being called the "Bible belt." Just because there a little churches peppered all across the area doesn't mean people are going. In Coweta County if you counted up every seat in every church, you still wouldn't have enough space to seat 10% of the population (115,000). And given that the large majority of these churches are not filled to capacity I'd say there are a lot of people who don't know Christ!

Here is an email from a lady we just baptized:

I was never brought up on religion, the only thing I did know was Jewish holidays at grandmas house. I never knew anything about Jesus or religion. Especially Jesus being the son of God. My whole life I heard people talking about heaven and hell, I always thought life on earth was your heaven and hell. When I got romantically involved with my husband, I never knew he was brought up in Church and he started to try and explain things to me (like the bible) and answer some questions that I had. I just started going to church the end of last year and I went for a few different reasons. I guess my main reason was for my daughter. I didn't want her to grow up without faith. What I learned is it's a hard life when all you have faith in is yourself (that's a lot of pressure to put on 1 person). I am having a lot of medical issues, so I thought maybe GOD can help me get through it better that I was. Once I started going to StonePoint, I felt different all around. I felt like this was a place I could feel comfortable and I could ask questions and I could grow with. Since coming here, my faith and my curiosity has gotten a lot stronger. I know Jesus Christ is where I want to be and who I want to follow because I know that I will always have good direction and anything I ever need help with is just a prayer away. It's so amazing to me that know matter what I ask help in, I always get it and I have never more been spiritually content. I asked my friends at work if they think god will get sick of listening to me and they said not a chance. That made me feel so good,so happy to always have someone there for me no matter what!

90 Day Tithe Challenge

2007-03-19T21:18:00.000-04:00

There is absolutely no need to be afraid of talking about money. I try to include a point in every series and do at least one series a year and if possible one message out of another series that is based upon biblical stewardship and people getting out of debt.

The last message of Simple Stress was titled "Not Enough Money." (This was one message based upon stewardship out of a series dealing with stress.) I put forth a tithe challenge to our people. This wasn't a money back type challenge. It was simply a challenge to test God and tithe for 90 days and see what He does in your life.

I even put the challenge out there for anyone who was not a believer to consider taking God at His word and tithe. If we can't trust God with 10% of our income why should we trust Him with our life.

As a result we had 19 people take the tithe challenge and one of them is a guy who doesn't believe. He wrote on his card that he wasn't a believer and was going to take the tithe challenge. Pray for this guy! I believe God is going to radically confront him and he will come to accept Christ.

Church planters need to talk about money. It is a real struggle for people. I had one couple ask if they were suppose to tithe after what was left over from paying their bills or tithe from their actual income. When you're reaching unchurched people they just don't know. People are looking for a way out from their financial stress and God has the solution.

What its all about!

2007-03-19T21:06:00.000-04:00

This past weekend is what it's all about. We had our second baptism celebration and baptized 8 people! That puts us up to 24 people since we started last August. That's what its all about!

We also had our first membership class. We intentionally waited a long time to have our first class. Perry Noble has a saying, "We intentionally leave the back door open. One of the descriptions of the church is that its a body and you know what happens when you close the back door of the body." I agree!

I look back at when we started and there were a lot of people who are no longer with us. They were good people, many of them already Christians. We just weren't the church for them. One of our sayings is, "We're a church for anyone, but not for everyone!" They were with us long enough to decide that we weren't the church for them and that's a good thing! I believe had we offered our membership class early on they would've placed their membership with StonePoint and that would've caused problems for both StonePoint and them. We place a high value on people and upon membership at StonePoint. We want people to know clearly what's expected of them.

Filmed In Newnan

2007-03-17T11:28:00.000-04:00

I finally got around to watching the premiere of October Road. I knew this show was filmed in Newnan. Its got some great shots of the downtown area. Newnan has a rich history. It's known as the "City of Homes" because it was spared during the civil war as Sherman marched through the south burning the cities.

If you're watching the show you'll see some great shots of downtown. But don't let the show fool you. Newnan has grown a great deal but has also kept its historic downtown. There's even an old historic theater now known as Alamo Jack's.

Newnan sits in Coweta County with a population of 110,000 people. The county is set to double in the next 10 years. According to this report, we already hold the title for the longest commute in the nation.

Last night, my wife and I went out to eat. In the middle of dinner, I told her I love Newnan. I look forward to seeing God change this County through StonePoint!

Momentum Podcast

2007-03-12T23:06:00.000-04:00

If you haven't heard it yet, here is a podcast with Nelson Searcy and myself on Momentum. Nelson and I discuss this post on Momentum from my blog.
Check out the resources at ChurchLeaderInsights.com. There are a lot of helpful tools. I would highly recommend the Evangelism Seminar, Stewardship Seminar and Assimilation Seminar.

This post on Momentum is a work in progress. I am interested in hearing your stories of how you've "recycled momentum" in your church. Shoot me an email swhitakerATstonepointchuch.com or leave a post for others to hear your story. (All posts are moderated.)

Simple Stress.com

2007-02-08T15:23:00.000-05:00

Here is our latest Message Series and mailer. We use www.o2graphicdesign.com for all of our graphic design.

FREE Atlanta Launch Conference

2007-02-08T15:17:00.000-05:00

If you're thinking planting a church, you need to go to this conference! Don't plant a church. Launch a church! Nelson Searcy isn't a theorist thinking up ideas on how to start churches. He's a practitioner whose networked with church planters across the nation. He's researched and gathered transferable principles that can help anyone in any context launch a church.

I should know. He's in New York City and I'm in a suburb of Atlanta. Yet, his ideas and principles have helped StonePoint launch into our community.

This conference is FREE! Which is the perfect budget for any church planter.

Blog Changes

2007-02-08T15:07:00.000-05:00

I'm changing my blog. I've changed the title from "Live Life Forward" to my name. I'm also adding a blog for StonePoint as make the move to add Home Teams. The goal is that StonePointers will be able to go to www.stonepointonline.com and download questions for their Home Teams.

This will continue to be my personal blog. I will continue to share with other church planters and pastors what we experience at StonePoint.

"Double Our Impact"

2007-01-14T22:13:00.000-05:00

(This is an old post that was in my drafts.)

That was our prayer starting in November of last year. If you've seen my posts on "How Fast Can the Church Grow?" then you know I've been pondering this for a while. Well, we challenged the church to consider: "What must we do for God to double the impact of StonePoint by the end of January?"

My approach was that in last May and August I stood in the theater and challenged our launch team of 11 adults to pray that God would fill our theater. We had a strategy, plan, outreach and marketing. And God did it! If He could do it then, why couldn't He do it again?

I stood before StonePoint in late November and told them we were going to two services. We didn't have enough people to go to two services. We didn't really even have the volunteer support to go to two services. However, the challenge was "what must we do for God to double our impact?" I believe we needed to create room for God to work. It was chaotic when we launched but somehow we pulled it off and everything went smooth.

I am excited to say that we've doubled our impact! We've doubled our community presence with our marketing. We've doubled our attendance. We've more than doubled the number of people serving in ministry. We've had more people in the past two weeks make a spiritual commitment than we've had in any message series.

I don't suggest every church planter go out and start two services. I do believe every church planter ought to seriously consider what must God do to double the impact of your church. Here are some thoughts when considering it.

It's really up to you. God wants His church to grow. It's up to you to discern what God wants you to do to work through His church to make it happen.
Set a goal. For us it was doubling. Not just doubling our attendance. We knew we couldn't support the attendance if we didn't double our volunteers.
Set a time frame. For us it was the end of January. I knew January would be a prime opportunity for us to reach new people. It was one that we needed take hold of.
Equip your people. I've had to release people like never before. I gave up answering questions that other people were totally capable of answering and implementing. I still focus on quality control, but I don't focus on the decisions.
Equip people evangelistically. We've been putting our mailers and invite cards in our programs every week. It's a reminder for people to be inviting their friends. Our people know that our mailers are to equip them to talk to their friends.
Create space for God to work. This means taking a bold step and risking your credibility. The Sunday I announced two services and doubling our impact, I knew my credibility was on the line. If it didn't happen I would've lost major leadership points. Some people seriously doubted it would happen. They never really told me but I could tell by the questions they asked. For others, I could tell they doubted by the look on their face when everyone started showing up.
Develop a strategy. Our staff spent a great deal of time on developing and implimenting the strategy.

Pure Sex Mailers

2007-01-14T21:58:00.000-05:00

Yes we took the idea and concept from Granger. We didn't use their graphics. No need to spend that money when I get it from www.istockphoto.com.

www.O2GraphicDesign.com did our designs. They've also done some logos for kids ministries and banners. You've got to check out there banners. They're better than anything else out there. They understand church planting because they are!

StonePoint Update

2007-01-14T21:27:00.000-05:00

Things have been crazy busy! Here is an update on where we're at:

We sent out a Christmas mailer for our Christmas Eve services and had our largest attendance since launch.
The theater actually let us have our services while they were showing movies.
We sent out another mailer the week after New Year's. We promoted our new series "Pure Sex."
We've taken some flack from Christians for doing the series and sending out our mailer. I don't regret it one bit! In two weeks, we've had 53 first time families, 6 salvations and 12 rededications! This series has hit home with a lot of people.
In November and December we began to challenge the church and pray that God double our impact. It was a dangerous prayer. I'll share more in another post.
We've grown by 100 people and have now gone to two services!
In the next couple of months we're hoping to look for a Small Groups & Administrative Pastor. We'll look inward first and then begin a full search.
Mark Gibson, our Worship Pastor, got married to Clarissa yesterday!
My wife and I celebrated our 10th Anniversary!
We've more than doubled our number of volunteers.

We've been crazy busy!

ChristmasInCoweta.com

2006-12-14T11:45:00.000-05:00

Here is our Christmas mailer. If it looks familiar, its because Gary and I kicked in together to save some money. We used the same front, different backs. Although we don't have the video to back it up.

Don't Plant, Launch!

2006-12-14T11:15:00.000-05:00

If you're thinking planting a church, you need to go to this conference! Don't plant a church. Launch a church!
Nelson Searcy isn't a theorist thinking up ideas on how to start churches. He's a practitioner whose networked with church planters across the nation. He's researched and gathered transferable principles that can help anyone in any context launch a church.

I should know. He's in New York City and I'm in a suburb of Atlanta. Yet, his ideas and principles have helped StonePoint launch into our community.

This conference is free! Which is the perfect budget for any church planter.

What It's All About

2006-12-14T11:01:00.000-05:00

This past weekend we had our first Baptism Celebration and afterwards we had a Christmas Party for everyone to hang out and get to know one another. We baptized 14 people and had over 100 people show up for the event! Not to mention one of the people baptized was my oldest daughter.
We came to launch a church for people who don't go to church. We had some people who had never seen a baptism before and are serious seekers. It also felt good to talk some people out of being baptized. They wanted to do it again for different reasons. That's what it's all about.

"How Fast Can The Church Grow?" Pt. 2

2006-11-22T10:57:00.000-05:00

In evaluating what we must do for God to double the impact of StonePoint by the end of January, I've been reconsidering everything I do. I've come to the conclusion that I'm doing way too much of the wrong things. What do I mean by that? I mean that there are things that I am doing that:

Someone else should be doing.
I don't need to be doing.
Someone and myself should be doing.
Shouldn't be done at all.
I should oversee being done.

I am coming to realize that I am more of a control freak than I thought. Sometimes I feel like a first time parent. If you have kids, you know what I am talking about. You want to make sure that everyone washes their hands before they touch your child. I can remember boiling every bottle with our first child. With our second, we threw some soap in the bottle, shook it and rinsed it real good.

I am looking at my daily tasks and asking, "Is this something I should be doing?" That is why I posted about reconsidering my blog. If it isn't something I should be doing, then I need to look around and ask God to show me who to invite to do this. I am reshaping my priorities around:

Prayer: If I haven't prayed, studied and sought God, then I have no business doing anything. I have no need to plan or do because I may be planning or doing the wrong things. I've also come to realize that one of my main jobs right now is to pray for the people God brings to StonePoint. I don't believe God called me to Pastor everyone but He did call me to pray for them. By doing this, we can accomplish our goal of people pastoring people. I pray over every prayer request and send them an email letting them know it.
Planning: It's only after I've prayed that I can move forward and plan. Plan for messages, events and vision. Before I can invite others to be a part of what God is doing, I need to know. Until we grow beyond the level we're at, I need to lead the way. Eventually, we'll have others planning but not now.
People: Some people might think this one should be first. However, if I haven't prayed and planned, then how can invite people to do what God desires for them to do. I need to spend more time with people. I need to open up more one on one meeting times. I need to spend more time casting the vision and listening to others perception of the vision. "Do they get?"

I wish I could say I'm doing this. Part of putting it on my blog is sort of a public confession and accountability.

If StonePoint is going to grow, I must grow. If StonePoint is going to grow, I must be obedient to do what God has called me to do and invite others to do the same.

"How Fast Can the Church Grow?" Pt. 1

2006-11-21T21:50:00.000-05:00

I was asked this question by Nelson Searcy. Nelson and I have been friends for a couple of years and I'm in his Tampa Coaching Network. This question has hit me hard. Why is it that the church in America is stagnant and declining? Why are there some churches that seem to grow rapidly and others don't? How fast can the church grow? I know/heard/read of churches that have grown from 0-7,000 in 8 years, 0-1,200 in 5 years, 0-600 in two years, 250-4,000 in 10 years. And yet there are many churches that haven't experienced any growth in years. In addition to that question Gary Lamb bought me the book Go Big. I believe God was getting my attention.
From the question and the book has risen this question:

What must we do for God to double the impact of StonePoint by the end of January?

I've been challenging StonePoint, my staff and spending a great deal of time to consider what we must do for God to accomplish just that. If we can go from "0-current attendance," then there is no reason why He can't grow the church from "current-double the current." There are some assumptions with that question.

God wants his church to grow. I believe this wholeheartedly. I don't believe God wants people to go to hell or live outside the fellowship of the church. We need new churches, large churches, established churches, community churches but most of all we need growing churches!
God causes the growth to happen. Don't believe it read 1 Corinthians 3:5-9. Jesus even said that "I will build my church."
We inhibit the growth of the church. If God is the one who causes it to grow, then it seems that we are the ones who inhibit that growth. I've spent a number of years serving in unhealthy churches. I believe that one fo the reasons churches don't grow is that they're not healthy. Unhealthy Pastors, leaders and congregations all inhibit the growth of the church. As Rick Warren says, "Healthy things grow!"
We must partner with God as He grows His church. This is where we get tangled up. How do we partner? What must we do? What should we do? How do we do it? With what resources can we do what? The reason we get entangled is because of the questions. Those questions are good and ought to be asked but the focus should be what does God want how do we partner with Him?

I can't claim to have the answers. I'm learning that those who Pastor and lead rapidly growing churches don't have them either. They've seen the hand of God move in the church. I'm asking God to do the same. We're asking God to double the impact of StonePoint by the end of January. Why not? We're asking, praying, making changes and equipping StonePointers to do the same.

By the way the church can grow from a few-3,000 in one day.

Me and My Blog

2006-11-21T21:40:00.000-05:00

Lately, I've been pretty quiet with my blog. I've been reconsidering my motivation for blogging, reconsidering the purpose of blogging and evaluating the amount of time I really want to give to blogging and reading blogs.
On top of those thoughts are the thoughts of me wanting everyone to know my thoughts and the possibility of them being misunderstood or taken out of context by locals who may not understand church planting.
My approach has been to share with others the lessons and thoughts I've gained from others in my life and my own experience. I just don't find it interesting to me or others to post on the daily events in my life. That's not to ridicule those who do, it's just a preference.
Long story short, I am reevaluating the purpose of my blog.

I Gotta Brag

2006-10-26T22:20:00.000-04:00

I've been holding this in for a while now. We've got one of the best worship leaders in the Atlanta area! Mark Gibson (AKA Moxie Davis) joined our staff in August. His first Sunday was on our launch day. (We brought in a great college band from one of our partner churches, West Ridge.)
Mark has led worship for this guy, at this church, this church, this church and this church. He also started this band when he was in high school.
You may be asking (like I did) why would he want to come join a church plant? Well, first he is called of God. He also beleives in the vision. He wants to see people discover, connect and grow in a relationship with Christ just as much as I do. He can cast the vision for the church because he beleives in the vision.
Mark and I have a great relationship that goes way back to when I was his Youth Pastor. He was a great student at times. I did have to kick him out of the youth group a couple of times LOL. We have great chemistry and a great deal of respect for one another.
You can listen to Mark's newest band "The Joy Requiem." Also, if you went to the Drive Conference, he led the openning night with Move Along by the All American Rejects.

Per Capita A Measure of Evangelism

2006-10-18T13:03:00.000-04:00

Studies show that if your per capita is around $15 you've got a large number of church people. If your per capita is around $5 you're reaching unchurched people. From the beginning we set out to reach unchurched people. Our per capita shows it. We're right at $8.

I was talking with a church planter today about how we just experienced our lowest attendance and highest offering. He said don't be surprised because you'll also experience your highest attendance and lowest offering. As it turns out, our launch which was our highest attendance and also our lowest offering.

Anticipation & Momentum

2006-10-08T21:41:00.000-04:00

In my previous post on Momentum, I talked about the role of anticipation. I am finding out some of the things I anticipate our church doing or wanting isn't necessary what they're wanting or anticipating.

For example, I was recently asked the question what is our biggest obstacle. I replied that it was connectedness. "Our people just don't seem to be connected. I look out and see a bunch of people who don't know each other." This well experienced church planter told me, "Don't worry it will be that way for about a year and then one day you'll look up and see they're finally connected and you won't know how it happened." That was comforting, really!

I just naturally assumed that people wanted to get to know each other. Quite honestly, they don't. There are some who do, and others (the majority) who are just making their way back to church and are loving it.

They don't think about: going to church every week; we have a quality service and they don't see our need for them to volunteer; small Groups aren't in their vocabulary; our monthly community groups are just a novel idea.

As their Pastor, I'm okay with it. Why? Because before there can be momentum, there must be a discomfort. Right now they're comforted by the vision and environment of StonePoint. Instead of me telling them how they ought to get to know other people and how they should have a need for a small group or how they should want to get involved as if something were wrong with them for not wanting or being a part of those things, it's up to God to create a discomfort in their life. That discomfort is fed by God's vision for his church. It is up to me to allow God to move in their lives and His church to create that discomfort and then feed it with the vision He has for His church. When that happens, anticipation will build and momentum will come. And when momentum has run it's course, it will be time to look for another discomfort!

Discomfort --> Fed by Vision -->Ignited by Anticipation -->Led by Change = Momentum

Glad Today Is Over

2006-10-08T21:34:00.000-04:00

Let me just say I'm not disappointed by any means, but I am glad today is over. I can tell I'm not going to like Holiday Weekends. Schools are out tomorrow and our crowd showed it.

We intentionally ended our "Parenthood" series on this weekend. We wanted to start a new series on a non-holiday weekend. I'm looking forward to it too. We're doing a series on prayer and we've been gathering questions on prayer from our people. I look forward to answering their questions in this series.

Update: Launching Twice

2006-09-15T13:44:00.000-04:00

I wanted to follow up on this post. Part of having this blog is to be transparent with my journey through church planting. That includes when we hit our goals and when we fall short.

Well this past weekend was one of those goals we fell short on. We didn't hit our goal of exceeding our launch numbers. I would do the Movie On The Green again. We still had first time families. Our numbers weren't down and I'm not disappointed with our attendance by any means. I'll just never be satisfied with our attendance because I believe there are always people who God desires to be at StonePoint that weren't there.

One of the things we're doing this week is sending a personal letter to everyone in our database inviting them to this weekend. In the letter, we're letting them know that we'll give them a free CD of this past weekend's message (Thanks Gary for the idea.)

I still firmly believe in launching again and again. Every new series ought to be a launch. I still believe that it is possible for a church plant to launch and on more than one weekend. Some of you guys who haven't launched yet have a great opportunity to take that idea and run with it.

Thanks Ridge Stone!

2006-09-15T13:32:00.000-04:00

Got to hang out at the Ridge Stone office yesterday. Gary and his staff are great. Tim May, the Worhip Pastor, took some time for an impromptu discussion on worship and church planting. Not to mention he helped me burn some CDs for our parenting series.
Gary and I have different personalities but the same passion. We both love church planting for the unchurched. That's why we get along so well. We both don't want Christians coming to our churches unless you're gonna serve and be a part of the vision! It's not enough to plant/start a church unless you're going to reach people who don't know Christ.
Thanks Ridge Stone!

Atlanta Conference

2006-09-15T13:18:00.000-04:00

If you're looking for a great Assimilation Strategy, you need to go to this conference. Nelson Searcy has been a coach and friend for over a year now and he has put together some great stuff!
StonePoint has been using this strategy since our first monthly service. It has helped tremendously. It's simple, practical and is working. If you can't make it to the conference, just buy the strategy. You'll get the conference on two CD's and a complete resource CD with everything you need to get started.
Nelson started this church in New York City and is running over 1100 people in just five years. He has put together some great strategies.
Check out Church Leader Insights. They have great podcasts and resources. Sign up for their e-newsletter to stay updated on their resources and ideas.

Launching Twice

2006-09-04T14:21:00.000-04:00

Some people have questioned why we launched so early. We launched the week after school started. I don't doubt that a number of families were too busy to even think about going to church, but I had a still had a good reason to do so.

By launching in early August it set us up to launch twice. This coming Sunday we kick off a new message series on parenting. We combined this with our Movie On The Green and promoting it each Sunday during the current series. A couple of parents have told me they've been telling others about the series. We're not doing a mailer but we are equipping our people to invite their friends. Plus we got to show a commercial, pass out flyers and talk about it at the movie.

Our goal is to hit or exceed our launch number. Unchurched people don't go to church every week. So if we can hit that number again we're doing very well at bringing new people in and retaining them.

I think we ought to look at launching as a recrurring event. Every new message series, outreach event or "Big Day" ought to be a launch or rather turbo boost to build on propel the church forward. I am already planning for October and what we'll do to launch again. I got a couple of ideas that I'll share later.

Movie On The Green

2006-09-04T13:42:00.000-04:00

StonePoint Church and Newnan Utilities hosted an outdoor movie at a local park and we had over 400 people in attendance. Check out the pictures below. We had two inflatable rides, a clown, a professional mascot. We gave away free popcorn and snow cones. It was a blast.
We also got to promote our upcoming "Parenthood" series with a commercial, flyers and announcements. I can't say enough about the night. Check out the two story inflatable movie screen below.

Partnering With The Community

2006-08-28T20:35:00.000-04:00

This is a banner ad from Access Coweta.com. A local community website where people can vent, post local events in the community, sell stuff and even get recipes. The website is run by Newnan Utilities our local utility company.

I decided that when we did our Movie On The Green we would invite Newnan Utilities to partner with us. Since they also own the park where the event will be held we thought it would make a great relationship. They would get to boast a great family event provided by StonePoint and we would get the benefit of a great park and lots of promo. (It's not the best banner ad and it rotates on and off, but I'll take it.)

Movie on the green will be an outdoor movie on a two story screen. We will have inflatables, popcorn, field day games and show Ice Age 2: The Meltdown.

One of my observations is that churches try too hard. We try to have our own events instead of partnering with the community and doing events together. Because of our desire to partner with the community we've been in the paper four times and have our name being broadcasted through a high traffic website. All of that within a matter of three weeks time.

MOMENTUM - How does it happen?

2006-08-23T12:40:00.000-04:00

Momentum is a big buzz word right now. There is a lot of talk about having it, needing it, wanting it and enjoying momentum's ride. Almost every day I see the word pop up in my bloglines.

Seeing all of this talk about momentum has caused a lot of questions. What is meant by it? How do you get it? How do you maintain it? What lies on the other side of it? What is the result of it?

I've been thinking about this post for a long time and have been watching StonePoint and other churches and have come to some of the following conclusions.

In a nutshell it looks like this:

Discomfort --> Fed by Vision -->Ignited by Anticipation -->Led by Change = Momentum

Momentum is born out of a healthy discomfort. Bill Hybels calls it a holy discontent. People at StonePoint have discomfort for where they're at or where they've been. Momentum is born out of a discomfort of where you are and a knowledge of what could be.

Momentum is fed by vision. It takes more than a solution. Solutions may meet a temporary need. Vision is what constantly supplies the fuel of going from where you are to where God wants you to be.

Momentum is ignited by anticipation. I really believe anticipation is what ignites momentum. It is the first spark that moves someone from where they are to where they need to be. It is a transfer from knowledge to desire. It is no longer a matter of knowing, but desiring something greater. A desire for God to do something greater and anticipating Him to do it.

I really think we as Pastors/Planters need to harnass the anticipation. If we want people to experience momentum we must do better at creating anticipation of something greater. I first noticed this when we were doing monthly services. After the second monthly service we began to hear people say, "When are we going to meet weekly?" They had an anticipation of needing more. We fed it by giving them little by little.

In many respects anticipation is bigger than momentum. You can't experience momentum without anticipation. Instead of adding ministries, we're going to build an anticipation of those ministries. We want people to anticipate the excitement of the ministry that is coming. We talk of how its going to be awesome when we do it. We give them ideas and paint a picture of how its going to impact them. We pretty much ignore the question of when will it happen and talk about the result of it happening.

Momentum is led by change. You can't have momentum without some change. The status quo never causes momentum. It's not just change for the sake of change there has to be a significant change in the life of people. It has to fulfill and line up with the vision. If there is a change that doesn't match the vision people question either the vision or the change that took place. When they do that, you've failed to have momentum. All you had was some sort of change.

Momentum is recycled not sustained. Momentum is like a ride, it will come to an end. Its bound by the laws of physics. People will become comfortable with the familiar. An environment of momentum involves the unfamiliar. Which leads back to creating some sort of discomfort. If your people are comfortable you won't have momentum. You have to create some sort of discomfort and start the process all over.

Getting People Connected

2006-08-23T12:31:00.000-04:00

StonePoint is off to a great start. Some of our obstacles right now are getting people connected with one another. We have some great ideas and could use some more. Drop me an email or comment and let me know some things that have worked for you.

We've got our Movie On The Green and we're going to end our service early on Sept. 3rd (Thanks Gary!) That day we're doing a message on High Definition Relationships and instead of talking about it we're gonna go do it.

WE LAUNCHED!

2006-08-16T22:27:00.000-04:00

StonePoint Church was launched this past weekend. We packed out our adult theater. We're stoked about what God is doing. People are craving for a church like StonePoint. There are great churches here, but there is also a need to reach out to people in different ways. I am excited that God has brought us here.

Today, I had one of my first pastoral calls. A young lady who has been coming to our services wanted to talk. I love talking to people about what God desires for their life. It's great to see God reveal His purpose in people's lives.

We also had our Grand Opening Ribbon Cutting with the Newnan Coweta Chamber of Commerce. 27 business leaders gathered at the Georgian Cinema to take a tour of our church in a theater. We served cokes and popcorn and talked to everyone about how we do what we do. Afterwards, my wife and I cut the ribbon with the manager from the theater. It was a great way to reach out to local business leaders. We were excited to overhear one of the Chamber's staff members say that it was the best ribbon cutting they've had. A few people even said they were going to check us out.

In my opinion, the next few weekends are the true indicators of how well we've impacted our community prior to launch. I'm praying that we start two services.

Anonymous Comments

2006-08-12T00:48:00.000-04:00

If you want to leave a comment that's fine. Go ahead. But I've turned off the anonymous comment function. From now on, you'll have to log in.

And just for the record, this blog as it says: "is simply my thoughts on leadership, church planting and pastoring." If you don't like my thoughts then don't read them.

Those who read my blog can probably guess I've ticked off some "religious people" with the mailers. And I hope every other church planter does the same.

MovieOnTheGreen.com

2006-08-11T22:12:00.000-04:00

We've got some great plans for after launch. I consider it more of a relaunch even though we haven't even launched yet.

One of those ideas is Movie On The Green. We're bringing in an inflatable two story movie screen and showing Ice Age 2: The Meltdown. The company we're using is providing almost everything for a ridiculously low price. We've asked Newnan Utilities to partner with us and we'll be having the movie at their park. They said they'll help promote it and for us to expect anywhere from 500-1000 people to show up.

Before the movie, we'll have parent child field day games, inflatables and we'll promo our new message series on parenting on the big screen. It should be good.

Part of my strategy is that we relaunch with every new message series. That's another reason we launched in August. We're able to catch August and September since school started this week.

Press Release

2006-08-11T22:10:00.000-04:00

Check out our press release the Coweta Citizen Paper! It hit homes last weekend.

LAUNCH TIME

2006-08-11T19:00:00.000-04:00

StonePoint Church launches this weekend! What a week it has been. We had our final monthly service last weekend. I am excited to say that our attendance was strong and that we had double digit first time guests ever monthly service. That's awesome considering the only mailers we did were back in May!

This week has been rough. Just after midnight on Monday morning, my grandfather passed away. It was expected and emotionally I am at peace with his passing. One person said to me, "This is no surprise to God. He is in control and He has planned for these circumstances." However, it has still taken a toll on my physically. Whirlwind trip to the funeral and back wasn't all that great. The best thing about it was that I was able to spend 8 hours in the car with my oldest daughter. We had some great "daddy-daughter time."

38,000 mailers hit homes twice this week (2 different mailers). We've gotten great feedback from our website. However, I am a little disappointed that we didn't tick off any Pastors this time. We have ticked off a couple of people wanting their names removed. I simply apologize and tell them its the post office's fault. Oh well. I bet they don't complain when they get that Jiffy Lube advertisement!

I do feel that all is done that can be done for launch. I'm not losing sleep yet, we'll see how tomorrow night goes.

We have a great service planned. We're opening with Beautiful Day by U2, we have an awesome worship set and we're giving half our offering to The Community Welcome House. A local mission.

Thanks for the prayers and all those who've gone before me! It's LAUNCH TIME!

What I'd Do Different

2006-08-11T18:37:00.000-04:00

This past week a church planter asked what I would do differently. I told him we haven't launched yet, ask me Monday. But then I started to think about it and gave some of these answers.

I'd pray more. Initially I had all these ideas of doing prayerwalks through the different subdivisions in our area. I thought about having different teams come in prayerwalk. I even got this DVD to train teams to go out. But did I do it, no.
I'd deny my need to feel validated from the start. When I first came down here, we knew no one and I had no staff and no partners. I looked for whoever would join and "catch the vision." I came really close to hiring for two different positions and actually hired for one position and they were the wrong people! To be honest, I look back on it and I felt like having staff and as many people on my launch team validated the plant and my calling to plant. Luckily, no one was hurt by it and we are healthy and strong but it could have caused tremendous damage.
I'd spend more time with the people who came to the monthly services. We met with people and had people over. But I would just do it more.

I know there are more, but without taking too much time that's what comes to my head first. Maybe it will help someone else.

In the end, my prayer has been and continues to be: "God keep your promise and build your church. Even if it is in spite of me. And thank you for allowing me to be a part of it!"

Another Anxious Family!

2006-07-25T09:52:00.000-04:00

While at the Chamber breakfast I had another family tell me they can't wait until our next service. This family has only came to our July service and are already hooked. Not to mention the husband turned to the guy next to him and asked if he's come yet and then told him he ought to check us out. It's great to see people putting their credibility behind StonePoint.

Chamber of Commerce

2006-07-25T09:38:00.000-04:00

One of the ways that I've connected with our community is through our Chamber of Commerce. One of the first things I did was join the Chamber. After attending my first Chamber breakfast in December, I was asked to give the invocation for each breakfast. While I dislike the whole "have a Pastor pray for the breakfast," I enjoy being around business leaders in the community and partner with them in community activities. I've noticed that in doing so I've earned credibility with different business leaders.
Here are some ways that StonePoint is partnering with the Chamber:

We'll sponsor one of the monthly breakfasts. They put on a great breakfast and in order to do so they need sponsors.
We'll have a "Grand Opening Ribbon Cutting." We've worked it out with our movie theater to have a ribbon cutting during the week. Chamber members and local officials will come be there. We'll setup one of our children's theaters and our worship theater so that people can see what a church in a theater looks like. We're gonna have popcorn and drinks for the refreshments. Once we get an office we'll possibly do it again for the opening of our office space.
I am joining the entrepreneurial Friendly task force. This committee is seeking to earn the state certification for being an entrepreneurial friendly community. I am only one of a handful of "non-profit entrepreneurs" in the Chamber.
We'll join in some of the Chamber's social events. They have an upcoming bowling event. I was asked by four different people today if StonePoint would be there. We'll see if we can put a team together and kick some tail!

LivingInHighDef.com

2006-07-23T18:24:00.001-04:00

Here are our mailers that we'll send out leading up to launch. We'll hit three zip codes in our community. They're similar to these that we sent out leading up to our first monthly service. We wanted to continue our brand identity in the community. That's why we're doing the .com message series.

We're launching with a series titled: High Definition Living! Our 50" plasma that someone donated will make a great prop not to mention one of the most expensive props I've ever used!

Getting Closer to Launch

2006-07-23T17:48:00.000-04:00

StonePoint Church is about to launch! We've been having monthly services for the past three months and having different social events in between. The monthly strategy has worked for us. With each monthly service we've had more first time families than the prior service. Our goal through the summer has been to touch as many families as possible before we launch. We've touched well over 100 families and we haven't even launched yet.

Another benefit of the monthly strategy is we've built up anticipation so much that people are telling us that they're ready! That's huge. I saw a family today that told us they can't wait. Not only that the wife asked, "When are WE going to start a second service because WE are already running out of space?" I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one who has noticed. I am praying that we launch and double our attendance from our monthly services!

The plans are already under way for a second service. Here is a resource from Nelson Searcy titled Starting a Second Service. Nelson is a great strategist and leader. Nelson is the Pastor and planter of The Journey Church.

I believe our strategy is working but more than strategy, I believe it is because God is working in our community. I know with every bit of my being that God is launching StonePoint and I have the joy being a part of it and inviting others to do the same. My prayer is constantly, God don't let me screw this thing up.

Quick Update

2006-07-12T15:38:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since my last post and a lot has happened.

Computer crashed for a week.
Email and website crashed for a couple of days.
We had our third monthly service on July 9th. It was awesome. We had more first time guests this time than we did for our June 4th service.
We hired a Worship Leader. More on him to come. Let me just say, "He's stickin awesome!"
Got a cook out this Sunday.
We've had a huge blessing! Someone wanted to donate the funds for us to get a new toy: 50" plasma with a custom case. We got the case off Ebay. It has a hydraulic lift so that the plasma rises up out of the case. You can check out the case here. SWEET!

God continues to build His church! I am ready to launch August 13th! Momentum is building and I can't wait.

Community Event

2006-06-10T14:16:00.000-04:00

Last night we had a community event that we've been inviting people to from StonePoint. So far we've had two monthly worship services and two community events. This second event I decided that we should encourage everyone to attend a local community event as opposed to trying to do our own thing. There is a luau that is put on every year and I thought we would encourage everyone to come out to that and hang out there.

It was great! We had a over a dozen families show up for the event. The luau provided the band, food and sand for the kids to play in. We couldn't have put on a better event ourselves. They hauled in tons of sand for the kids. It was great.

More than that it was great to see families connecting with one another and everyone getting to know everyone. I have to admit when I was challenged to do some of our comeback events with local events, I was skeptical. I've doubted as to why people would want to come to an event where they don't know anyone else and they were invited by some new church they attended only one or two times. It blows me away. But then again, its just what I pray for: "God keep your promise and build your church."

Here are some of the benefits of doing your comeback event at a local community event:

It's free! There may be costs for food or activities but it's still free.
It allows your launch team to get to know people and connect people with other people, instead of being busy doing the event.
It's got more energy. There will be more people at the community event than if you do your own. More people makes for a more energetic event.
Better quality. For the most part the community event will be a better event than what you could put on yourself. I say for the most part, because I know there were a number of things that could've made last nights event better.
The event speaks to the vision and creativity of the church. Our people were able to see we're here for our community and we want to partner with the community instead of being another church in the community.
No planning! We didn't have to plan a thing for the event. We just promoted it! With everything else that is going on leading up to launch, it was great to promote an event that I didn't have to plan.

eBible Invite

2006-06-10T13:53:00.000-04:00

Thanks to my friend Tony McCollum who gave me an invite to the eBible.com beta site. If you like Biblegateway you'll enjoy eBible. They still have some work to do, hence the beta and invite only. But when this thing goes public it will be a great tool. They lack some of the versions that you find on biblegateway but I'm sure they'll be adding them.

Tony requested in his post that I post an invite to the person who posts a comment on my blog. The only catch is, you have to do the same on your blog. Once you sign up, you'll receive invites that you can give away.

The first person to give me their email address gets the invite!

2nd Monthly Service!

2006-06-05T15:11:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was another great day! Our attendance was down a little but we had 14 new families and 6 new volunteers. Even greater we have a total of 21 new people who are interested in volunteering. People are definitely getting connected to StonePoint.

One idea that we are going to implement is an "All Access Behind the Scenes" look at StonePoint. This is going to be a volunteer orientation where we'll take anyone interested in volunteering or just interested in learning more about what we do and how we do it, and we'll show them the ins and outs of our weekend service. I am praying that out of this we can get different teams to fill the ministries and their needs.

Man, I'm loving the ride!

Awesome Come Back Event!

2006-05-28T22:41:00.000-04:00

Okay so we had a great turn out to our first monthly service. At the service we made the announcement that we were going to have a cookout (today 5/28) and that everyone was invited to come. We did some follow up and made sure that everyone knew about it and was invited.
Well we had the cookout and 8 families showed up! Unfreakinbelievable! Honestly, would you go to a cookout that you were just invited to when you visited a new church. On top of that would you go to a cookout where you didn't know anyone! Even with it being Memorial Day weekend! It was a risky move but I just asked that God would honor it and bring people.

It was great! Our team was awesome. There was never a dull moment in the conversations. People didn't want to go home. Our team made new friends and everyone got to meet and build new friendships.

A huge shout out to Andy for grilling all the food. Because of him, I was able to talk to everyone and cast the vision.

We were also able to recruit 3 new volunteers for our June 4th service.

I'm stoked! God is doing a great work!

Partner Raising Pt. 2

2006-05-27T17:50:00.000-04:00

I got to talking with a new friend, Tadd Grandstaff about raising funds for his church that he'll be launching sometime next year. I figured I would post the ideas that I've come across as I raised partners for StonePoint. You may also want to check out a previous post titled "Partner Raising".

Have two websites. Have one where you can direct your partners and one for your target audience. Make your website your digital prospectus.
Have a mediocre website. You read it right! Have a mediocre website for your partners. For the most part you're going to have a better website than a lot of the churches out there. Just make sure your website doesn't speak that you don't need their partnership. Churches will think that if you have a flashy website that you probably don't need their money. After all, you have a way better site than they do. (This just reinforces the need for two websites. Your target audience will want a better site, but even then don't over sell your identity through your website.)
Have a prospectus. Don't just have a letter asking for money. Have a prospectus that includes: your vision, mission, values, demographic studies, why church planting?, family picture, strategic timeline, budget numbers, commitment form, Prayer Partners, staff strategy and outreach plan.
Tailor your prospectus. Know who you're sending your prospectus to and tailor it to their vision. Don't compromise your vision, tell them how they can fulfill their purpose and vision for their church by partnering with you. Also, if you're sending it to individuals talk about church planting and the need for new churches. If you're sending it to a church planting church, don't waste their time on how they need to support church planting, they already do! Know who you're talking to and tailor your prospectus to match.
Include your strategy. You may have a "fluid strategy" right now. Put it in there. As you learn and God gives you the strategy, change up your prospectus to match. Show them how the vision will be accomplished.
If you change, so should your prospectus. One of my mentors told me that if I change my prospectus, change it! Don't ever give your prospectus to someone and then say, "Well we're not going to do it that way now." Write what you're going to do and do what you've written and change it as needed.
Don't have a flashy prospectus/brochure. Don't get it printed professionally. Don't have famous people or mega churches in your prospectus. Don't tell them how great you are, let others do that for you. Get a cornerstone partner (see previous post) that will give you credibility. Remember you want to look like you need partners. Don't print them all at the same time. I remember printing 5 at a time on my deskjet. Then, I would get them bound at Kinko's. This allows you to change it up as you prepare for each partner.
Make sure your vision, strategy and budget match. Big visions take big budgets and strategic decisions to make them happen. When a potential partner doesn't see all three aligned, they see a major red flag. The problem is as a church planter you know its going to take more money than you get and you're going to have to work a strategy on less dollars to accomplish the same vision. That's where God does His greatest work. However, if you have $100,000 vision, don't have $50,000 budget. Have a $150,000 budget. Remember you're the one that has to trust God to make the vision a reality. Don't let that be the responsibility of your partners! Your partners are to be used by God to make it happen.
Don't bash churches. Yeah sure 80% are dying or declining, but don't bash them on their way down. Too many times the church is the only place where we shoot our wounded. Remember that 80% is the majority of whom you're asking to partner with you!
Ask until you get an answer. Make a potential partner tell you yes or no. If they say we'll get back to you, you get back to them. If they say we've got a meeting in a month, follow up a month and a day later. Your vision ought to be so compelling that it demands an answer of who will partner and who will not.
Don't ever forget God is at work. My cornerstone partner actually told me, "NO!" Not only did they tell me NO but they also said, "NO, WE CAN'T MEET WITH YOU." I was devastated. I started thinking of plan B, C, D & E to launch the church. Long story short, two days later they called back and said they would meet with me. After the meeting they partnered and became the largest partner over a two year period. You can't let a "NO" impact your faith in God, the vision and how He desires to work.
Always keep in mind your potential partner. Ask yourself, how they will perceive you, your vision and your prospectus based upon who they are and what they've been a part of. That means some of my suggestions may not be taken seriously because a potential partner would want something opposite of what I've suggested.
There will come a time when you need to stop. Know when you're suppose to stop and focus on launching the church. Move forward when that time comes and trust God to make up the difference.

Remember you're not a fund raiser. Your call is to be obedient to the vision that God has given you. Asking people & churches to partner is your obedience to the vision. If they don't, maybe God doesn't want them to partner with in this vision. It's God's responsibility to make the partners known. You just have to ask.

A Few Reflections

2006-05-22T22:17:00.000-04:00

Matt Payne asked me some questions about our strategy. It sparked some thoughts that I figured I'd share with others. I hope they help.

A couple of suggestions that really helped us:
1) Have at least two practice set ups and tear downs. It’ll help determine what’s still needed, where everything goes and help develop a system.
2) Work the system. By that I mean work the Launching A Purpose Driven Church system. Do the come back events and previews. Our goal now is to get at least 25 new families each preview in addition to the number of families that we had for our first preview.
3) Challenge God to build His church. That’s my prayer. Jesus said He would, I’ll work as hard as I can and be loyal to the vision. God, you build your church!
4) Our team is not the church. We’re not the church, we’re a group used by God so that He can build His church. God’s church shows up on Sunday they just don’t know it yet.
5) With our mailers we saw our web traffic spike tremendously. Consistently over 150 hits a day. Track it for free with http://www.statcounter.com/ Also, put a survey on there. I was shocked at some of the responses. All were genuine. (We actually have two, one for our web traffic and one for our first time guests.)
6) One thing I’ve seen quite frequently, especially among Christian church guys, is we have a tendency to skew our attendance with incoming churches. Spread out your visiting churches. You want people from your community coming to your church, not other churches. I know two guys, on launch one had over 300 another over 400. They both brought in over 100 people from visiting churches. The next week everyone was wondering where the crowd went. It was a major momentum killer. Try to spread them out. I was glad that about 20 people came from visiting churches. I’ve lined up the same for the other previews.

What an awesome weekend!

2006-05-22T14:49:00.000-04:00

We had a great weekend. Honestly, I could not have asked for a better first service! No gliches, no technical problems, no nothing . . . just people! It was great to watch people arrive and see for the first time a church meeting in a movie theater. They had no idea what to expect, and I think we rocked it (if I do say so myself)!

We have an awesome team! Nobody came to me asking what to do, except a few volunteers from out of town. And even then I sent those volunteers to the launch team for direction. I was worry free (well maybe for the most part.)

A few observations:
1) Mailers worked for us in our area! We definitely created a buzz within our community. I do think one reason why they worked is because I've made sure I've been active in our community. Now we need to ride the wave and build our word of mouth.
2) The band rocked! Even though we're still searching for a Worship Leader, we were able to get a partner church to bring in one of their bands. The problem that it creates is that the band was so good, we can't go backward in quality or sound!
3) Our outreach event on Saturday was a God thing! The event that we planned to do fell through the week before and we ended up joining with some local businesses to do a benefit for a local charity. Well, we passed out our cards to some bikers and they showed up. Definite God thing!
4) Web surveys! Do them! I thought we would get spammed (which now that I'm blogging about it may happen) but we haven't. We've gotten awesome feedback. We have two surveys, one for our website visitors and one for our first time guests. The survey for first time guests is different and has a hidden link so that you can't click directly to it from our website.
5) Now everything depends on our follow up! Hopefully our weekend service was a hook. Now we have to follow up with those interested in serving and build a crowd for this week's come back event (cookout.)

I can't wait to do it again on June 4th!

New Mail Folder

2006-05-18T19:11:00.000-04:00

I've created a new mail folder called "Funnies." I've not caught a lot of flack (yet) from our promo, but the two emails I've received are hilarious. Tickin' off Christians can be fun. Today's "Funny" was from a guy who was "just curious" but also said "Quite obviously you have a lack of separation from the world."

He also said:

I am thinking that you are going to come back with some nonsense about "judge not", or "me and Jesus got our own thing going", or "those verses are not relevant to Newnan, GA in the year of our Lord 2006". Especially since you are holding your "services" in a movie theater. Which is one of the craziest things I have ever heard.
I am really curious though, to hear from you. Please use the Bible. You know the Jehovahs Witnesses had to re-write the Bible in order to make it fit their beliefs. I trust you are not going to respond using the Testaments of Veggie Tails.

He didn't sound so curious to me. Actually he kinda stole my thunder. He wouldn't let me quote the Veggie TALES version. So I responded in the same way I did the other guy. Only this time I added 1 Cor. 3:10-13. I guess there is something disarming when you tell people you're okay with God judging the quality of your work.

Free Photographer

2006-05-17T10:33:00.001-04:00

I just got a phone call from local photographer who is going to come out and take pics of our first service for us - FOR FREE!

We'll pay for the pics, but its still a great deal!

Hate to disappoint . . .

2006-05-17T10:33:00.000-04:00

I received an email this morning from a local Independant Baptist Church requesting (caps are his): "WOULD YOU PLEASE CONSIDER CHANGING YOUR SCEDULE FROM ONCE A MONTH TO MAYBE ONCE A YEAR ? OR MAYBE EVEN ONCE A DECADE WHAT A JOKE !!!"
(I am withholding his name.)

Well I hate to disappoint, but I've considered the idea and we're gonna move forward with weekly services on Aug. 13th! Don't worry we'll still have monthly services on May 21, June 4, July 9 & Aug. 6.

This was my reply:
May God bless you and your ministry.
Numbers 6:24-26
24The LORD bless thee, and keep thee: 25The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: 26The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
Romans 12:14-16
14Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not. 15Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. 16Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits.
(I made sure I used KJV just so he would be comfortable reading it.)

This church has been known for boycotting a number of things locally and in the Atlanta area. I'll let you know if they decide to boycott us. We should have some great pictures if they do!

Couldn't Pick A Better Location!

2006-05-16T21:27:00.000-04:00

First off, I gotta give a shout out to one of our launch team members for finding this. Thanks Andy!
You gotta take a look at the location where we are meeting. I knew we had it good but this is better than good. Here are some facts from the developer's website:

THE PROJECT: A 600,000-square-foot, open-air, up-market center, positioned to exert a regional draw. The property presents a new opportunity in an affluent, growing market. With its north-central Coweta County location, The Forum - Ashley Park is situated to attract shoppers from a broad range of counties, including Carroll, South Douglas, South Fulton, Fayette, Heard and Troup, including the city of LaGrange. Within a 30-minute drive-time area, the development will impact a market with size, affluence and high growth rates. Opening spring 2006.

LOCATION: Intersection of I-85 and Hwy 34 (30 miles south of Atlanta) in Coweta County

TOTAL SIZE: Approximately 600,000 SF

TRAFFIC COUNTS: 57,343 cars/day on I-85, north of Hwy-34 47,025 cars/day on Hwy-34, in front of site

DEMOGRAPHICS / POPULATION / AVG HHI / POPULATION GROWTH
3mi. / 20,453 / $66,963 / 21.26%
5mi. / 46,060 / $70,306 / 19.51%
7mi. / 72,067 / $72,610 / 18.41%

ANCHORS: Dillard’s, Consolidated Theaters, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Best Buy

It's just my opinion . . .

2006-05-16T16:37:00.000-04:00

. . . But you know you have a good marketing piece when a church person calls you and asks if you teach the Bible.

We've gotten great calls on our mailers! Some of the questions include:

Is that you and your wife pictured on the front of the mailer?
Do you have a dress code?
What denomination are you? This has been a consistent question. (I could tell one guy was a local Pastor because that's all he wanted to know.) When I told him, he said, "Oh so you're a Christian Church plant." I guess he felt relieved that we weren't Baptist (I assume) as if we were in some sort of competition.
Are you meeting this Sunday? (The mailer makes it pretty clear when we meet, but I guess they just want to make sure.)
Do you teach the Bible? I was only asked this question once. It was obvious he was a church guy. That was all he wanted to know.

Visit these links to see the front and back of the mailers.

We've Got An Awesome Team

2006-05-15T22:20:00.000-04:00

Our team is awesome. We've got a great mix of people. From people highly committed in their faith to people making their way back into the church for a long time. We even have some people who are extremely interested in serving who are unchurched. We've got college students, singles, couples, couples with kids and an African American family.

Our team has had some setbacks. We've had two families experience the death of a close relative, another family, the father is undergoing treatment for leukemia. Nothing can replace the loss of a loved one and the guy with leukemia is making great progress.

As for our staff, God has provided an awesome worship band from West Ridge Church. This is the band that leads their young adult worship. We continue to search for staff. I would much rather be launching a church with a staff, but this is the story that God is writing for StonePoint. We won't make compromises just to have warm bodies on our staff. One mistake I made over the past two years was not surrounding myself with potential staff. I surrounded myself with a bunch of church planters to learn from them and their experiences but I wasn't intentional on searching for staff.

Our team is excited about the privilege we have of doing church in a theater. They're excited about our setup and tear down. They're pumped about our worship. They believe in the vision of challenging people to discover, connect and grow in a relationship with Christ and people.

My wife and I moved to Newnan back in November and didn't know anyone. Since then God has surrounded us with an awesome team. I'm enjoying the ride!

For The Record

2006-05-15T22:10:00.000-04:00

I want to pass on something I learned from Tony McCollum. I won't be sharing attendance numbers on my blog. I heard Tony say that attendance numbers have a tendancy to make one guy feel good about his numbers in regard to another guys numbers. At the same time one guy feel bad about his numbers in respect to another guys numbers.
So if you're a friend you'll find out, just not through my blog.

Pray for May 21st!

2006-05-15T21:51:00.000-04:00

We just sent out 38,000 mailers today and another 38,000 will go out again on this Wednesday. All in preparation for our first monthly worship service on May 21st. Plus we are partnering with local businesses to put on a benefit for a local women's shelter on the 20th. StonePoint provided the food and our team will be there to pass out popcorn and snow cones.

I've been getting phone calls today asking about the church. They've been very encouraging. One of which was a mother who asked what our dress code was. She was stoked when I told her that I would be wearing jeans if that would help her in making a decision of what to wear. She told me she was a single mom with three kids and didn't have dress clothes for her kids.

Another guy just moved here from Alabama, wanted to make sure we were meeting this Sunday and said he would be there.

I really believe StonePoint is one of the first of a wave of church plants that God will bring to Coweta county. In watching other church plants, I think there is something about being the first.

VJ Resources for Worship

2006-05-12T09:11:00.000-04:00

I wanted to pass a long a couple of video resources. The first is a vj software called VidVox. VidVox is only $75! It will allow you to take motion backgrounds and lumakey your lyrics with your background (you can use it with your PowerPoint through lumakeying). You will need a video mixer to do this but VidVox will allow you to change your backgrounds in line with the beat of the song and with the image that you want to convey with the lyrics. Unlike other programs that I hear about crashing all the time and expensive equipment this one can still get the main job done without crashing and without the high cost. (I've run 5 programs at the same time and it never crashed, although it did slow down.)
A second came to me from Gary Lamb called Motion Loops. For $100 you get over 240 motion backgrounds and they come in downloadable form as well as a dvd. Make sure you get the VJ Performance Loops. I made a mistake and bought the playable dvd.

First Day In The Theater!

2006-05-07T22:09:00.000-04:00

Today was awesome! We got in our theater for the first time. As part of our strategy, I decided to have a couple of weeks where we could setup our equipment and do some run throughs. We packed up the trailer last night and no doubt this morning it was pouring down rain. We unpacked into our theater at seven and had a blast. The launch team was stoked over the equipment.
God has really blessed us with some great people. Kent Morris at Cornerstone Media Group has hooked us up! Kent got us some great equipment and helped show our launch team how to hook it up and run it. He was a great alternative to Portable Church. Come to find out he was asked to consult PCI years ago as they were just starting out! Then there are all the people who gave at the two baby showers for our Children's Ministry. God continues to provide for us.
I've not said enough about our launch team. They're great! We've got a diverse group from all backgrounds. We've got folks that have been in the church for a long time and some making their way back. They all have a servant's heart and I've not heard one of them complain! My wife and I moved here last November and didn't know anyone. Since then God has surrounded us with a group of people who are committed to launching StonePoint. They're stoked about it and that makes the ride a lot more enjoyable!
As for our theater, I couldn't ask for a better location or management! We've got four theaters (for a great price) and on site storage in each theater. The theater is only a year old and in a growing location. They just opened a Best Buy and are in the process of building a Barne's & Noble, JC Penny, Dick's Sporting Goods, just across the street from a Target & Old Navy. It's where everyone in Newnan goes to shop, eat, entertain and soon they'll be able to go to church. As for the management, they're very accommodating. They gave us free popcorn and cokes today. They even changed up their schedule so that we could have the theater longer than what we needed.
Tonight at our launch team meeting, I told them of how we need to exceed their (the theater management) expectations to help make it easy for them to meet our requests. We have the privilege of having church in a theater. God has given us this location to challenge people to discover, connect and grow in a relationship with Christ and people. People (most of them Christians) ask me when we are going to get a building. We have one! It's called the Georgian Cinema. Man I'm looking forward to the coming weeks!

What A Week

2006-04-22T22:26:00.000-04:00

It's been one of those weeks where you definitely know you're planting a church. One of my launch team members knew somthing was up since I haven't blogged in a week. It's hard to share your thoughts when they're consumed with a situation that you can go into detail about. I will say this: We're right where God wants us!
There is something about being vulnerable before God and dependent upon His direction. I love Church Planting and I am humbled that God allows me to be a part of His work. Say a prayer for us that God will continue to "build His church."

Free To Any Church Planter

2006-04-11T11:45:00.000-04:00

I have three FREE registrations to the National New Church Conference on April 25-25 in Orlando, FL. You will be responsible for your own transportation, lodging, and meals. These registrations are for the conference AND the pre-conference "Launching A Purpose Driven Church". Anyone who desires these registrations post or send me an email.
I'd hate to see these go to waste. They are completely free, no strings attached. They don't have to go to the same person. I've already contacted them and they said all we need to do is transfer the names at no cost. If someone wants to pay for them, we'll take it but they are free.

Got Another Hook Up

2006-04-10T20:42:00.000-04:00

It was time for us to join the Willow Creek Association. I had heard that they give church plants a discount and figured I'd ask. Well it just so happens that my request for a "free/reduced" membership crossed paths with a donor from Willow Creek sponsoring a church to join the WCA. We just got a free 1 year membership because of a Willow member.
They have been known to give church plants a reduced membership. You may have to provide some information about your plant.
What a day! A hook up from Media Shout and Willow Creek! One day we'll have to send a check sponsoring church plants membership to WCA.

Thank You Media Shout

2006-04-10T16:32:00.000-04:00

We just got hooked up! A little secret for you guys: Media Shout gives discounts to church plants. I talked to the Media Shout guys way back at the Catalyst Conference and they were going to take $50 off the price. I figured I would wait until we were closer to launch. Well, I contacted them last week and we just got $200 off the price!
Tell them your a plant and you might be able to get the same discount. I can't gurantee. They do ask that you send materials and information about your church plant. We had to wait a couple of days to hear back from them.

Why We'll Use Mailers, But Not Only Mailers

2006-04-08T14:40:00.000-04:00

I thought I'd post about why I've chosen to use mailers.

My belief is that mailers are a compliment to what we're already doing, they're not what we do to reach people.
I believe there is a void in our area. In studying our area, I've come to realize that there is a niche that is waiting to be filled. Combining Christmas and Easter we've only received two mailers from two different churches. Both mailers were churchy and appealed to church people. By churchy, I mean no felt needs, church language and didn't embrace culture. Not to mention the graphics were cheesey.
I believe we have something to market. We have more than the church or a series, we have a buzz. We're the first church to have regular worship services in a movie theater in Coweta County. Every week I run into people who are shocked by the idea of meeting there. We're definitely going to play it up. As far as I am concerned when it comes to Coweta County we're the first church ever. "I don't know any other churches that meet in movie theaters. They got the idea from us!" LOL
We're spending more on outreach events/marketing than we are on equipment. I have a strong conviction that we should spend money on people, not on equipment. Let me explain, I've seen churches that get the nice equipment and think that will bring people. I've seen other churches with the mentality of "mail it and they will come." My conviction is we should invest in people. Sometimes that is through equipment (post launch) but investing in people can always be done through outreach (pre-launch). (We have nice equipment, we'll have the equipment that a church of 300 should have but we definitely don't have the equipment of a church of 600).

I don't believe every church should do mailers. Some communities are saturated with advertising. Some churches have limited resources and need to balance other needs more so than just mailings.

By the way, even if we get 1/4% of a return on each mailer, that is still 95 first time families per mailer. For the $ we're spending on it, I'll pay that anyday.

I Had A Bad Night

2006-04-08T12:54:00.000-04:00

So I couldn't sleep last night. It got to be 2am so I decided to get up and do some work. I've redesigned our website (feedback welcomed). I still have more to do. Does anyone know someone that can design some flash. I want our logo to be flash.
I'm pumped about our new look/identity/brand and buzz we're creating in the community. In addition to our series that we're doing for our monthly services: YouHadABadDay.com we're going to launch with a series titled: MyLameLife.com. I have no shame in saying that I totally ripped the idea from Granger Community Church in their series MyLameSexLife.com.
Here are the back of the cards and the invite cards (folded business size) to what I've already posted.

Front Side

Back Side

Inside Top

Inside Bottom

YouHadABadDay.com

2006-04-06T11:18:00.000-04:00

What do you guys think? Here are the two covers for our mailers. We're designing them around our message series: "YouHadABadDay.com" This is from the Daniel Powter song, "Bad Day". We're taking different lyrics from the song and using them as message titles. We own the website and it will redirect them to StonePoint Church. I will post the back of the cards soon.
(Don't worry we're changing the site to match our target. Our site primarily served to raise up partners and now we're changing it to match our demograph.)

So what are your thoughts on these!

A Prayer for You And Me

2006-03-31T08:43:00.000-05:00

I receive devotional emails every day, one of them is from Literature Ministries International. They put out a devotional for Pastors based upon the writing of AW Tozer. You can sign up for it here. I wanted to share today's devotional with the bloggersphere.

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing. 2 Timothy 4:7-8
Will you pray for me as a minister of the gospel? I am not asking you to pray for the things people commonly pray for. Pray for me in light of the pressures of our times. Pray that I will not just come to a wearied end--an exhausted, tired, old preacher, interested only in hunting a place to roost. Pray that I will be willing to let my Christian experience and Christian standards cost me something right down to the last gasp! Who Put Jesus on the Cross? page 60.
"Lord, I pray for all my fellow pastors and Christian leaders. Help us, like Paul, and like Tozer, to finish strong. Amen."

Church Plant Visits

2006-03-26T18:15:00.000-05:00

Last weekend it was Ridge Stone, this weekend it was Mill Creek Community Church. Both are awesome churches. I admire guys like Tony and Gary who go into an area with nothing but a call of God and vision to see people who are far from God come into a relationship with Him. I first met Tony in a coaching network that we were both a part of and the guy has a great deal of knowledge and experience when it comes to church planting. The thing about him is he would never admit it.

A church planter needs guys who have gone before them! We need to look at the pioneers who've set examples for us to follow. We need guys to look up to, to call on and to beg for help when we're facing the battles. When its all said and done, we're just going the road that others have gone before us. One person following the other, leading all the way back to the road that Jesus took to make it all possible.

There's no such thing as success in Church Planting,
only changed lives. And, it is changed
lives that measures the effectiveness of a Church Plant.

If you want to see two effective church plants, visit Ridge Stone and Mill Creek. Plus you'll come away with a number of great ideas. (One idea: Mill Creek has a mascot greeting kids as they come into the children's ministry!)

What a week, what a weekend!

2006-03-18T19:43:00.000-05:00

Well this was definitely an interesting week. Got a bomb dropped on me early in the week. Had the vision challenged by a potential partner. Got sniped out of an auction on eBay. And had a go around with UPS. But it's been a great weekend.

We'll skip the bomb and go straight to the vision being challenged. I love it when I talk with potential partners who haven't planted a church. They seem to ask all the questions that you have answers for but no proof. They don't realize it but they're challenging the vision not you or the strategy. I had lunch with a couple of guys from the same church and we were talking about StonePoint's strategy and how we'll be reaching out to our community. I was challenging them to partner with us. All in all it was a great meeting. I leave meetings like that pumped about what lies ahead. I love to defend the vision for StonePoint.

Sometimes defending the vision is more fun than casting the vision. It pumps me up and sharpens my resolve.
Then I got sniped out of an auction at the last minute. I had a bid on a case for a lighting system and at the last minute this guy comes in and starts posting bids. It was down to seconds and his very last bid outbid me. It's not like I wanted to get in there and outbid myself. Oh well, I hope he enjoys his case.

Then I found out that UPS delivered our Children's Ministry video projector to the wrong house. For 3 days our video projector sat in someone else's house. The driver finally called me and told me where he dropped it off and I went and picked it up today. Just a note, if you get insurance on a package, the sender is the one who has to file the claim. You have no right to receive the insurance payment from a lost/stolen package. I bought it off eBay and had to ask the seller to help find it. Luckily, he was an honest seller. However, be careful because they could file the claim and keep the money. Then they would receive double payment.

Had lunch with my wife today. It was great to get out on a date and spend time together. She's awesome. We both enjoyed a fat steak and talked about life. We've been married for over nine years now and it still feels like we're in our honeymoon years. Nine years, two beautiful daughters and a wild and crazy journey through ministry. We often talk about what life will be like in ten years. Who would've thought that ten years ago we would be where we are now. I wouldn't want to go through life with anyone else.

Then my wife went to work and I took my two daughters out to dinner. My three year old got her first brain freeze. We all laughed! My daughters are fully involved in the planting process. It's a tangible way for them to see God work. We prayed that we would find the video projector and that whoever had it would be honest. We told my oldest daughter we found it and she immediately began to thank God!

Tomorrow, I head off for my first visit to RidgeStone. It'll be nice to see what all the hype is about. Gary's doing an awesome work. Anyone who can plant a church with the resources he had and do as well as he is must be doing so with the blessing of someone greater. I mean all those guys who criticize him, really give Gary too much credit. If it were up to Gary, I really don't think he could gather a crowd that large, that quick. Don't get me wrong Gary's a great guy and all but you guys who think RidgeStone is all because of Gary and not God, is really just a compliment to Gary. Gary reminds me of this man. He's got a passion to reach the unchurched and some guys just can't handle the fact that he'll challenge the way you see things. That goes back to defending the vision.

If you can cast a compelling vision but can't defend it,
you better rethink your vision.

Anyways, I'm looking forward to tomorrow. I'm sure we'll rob them of some great ideas.

The ABCs of Big Events

2006-03-07T18:25:00.000-05:00

Every now and then I just to need to blog about some ideas I've gathered from others in order to make them stick in my own thinking. This is one of those posts and I owe it to this guy.

Nelson tells Church Planters the ABCs of big events are:

A - Attraction: You got to have a big event that is attractive to people. However, too many times we think we have something attractive but its not as attractive as it could be. One way to counter this is to partner with your community in what is already going on. Instead of having your own Easter Egg Hunt in your community, what if you asked the PTA at a local school if you could provide an Easter Egg Hunt for them or Spring Fling, whichever. Partner with your community instead of competing.

B - Bridge: All big events should be a bridge to what you want to lead people to. Your not doing the event to just do it, you want to have a goal in mind that your inviting people to. (Don't confuse this with servant evangelism.) Promote a new series or worship service.

C - Communicate: You've got the event, you've got the bridge, now make sure you clearly communicate to them the next step. How do the cross the bridge to get to what you want them to. Don't confuse the message with many announcements, make it clear and simple. Pass out flyers or other information.

99X

2006-03-03T21:15:00.000-05:00

Got to hang out at the 99X (alternative radio station) studios this morning with their morning crew. I won two free passes so I thought I would take Gary Lamb. I knew they would put a Church Planter/Pastor on the air and I thought it would be good to take another Church Planter with me and Gary's about the most unchurched Church Planter I know :).
Sure enough, as soon as we got there they passed out a questionnaire and the first question on it was what do you do? When we got in the studio Axel, the host dj, thumbed through the questionnaires and eventually came to mine. He asked, "What's a Church Planter?" So we got to tell him a little bit about it. When they went back on the air, they started talking about me and Gary. They asked us to step over to the mic and started asking us about Church Planting and Pastoring. One of the djs, Wally, goes to church, but a lot of people at his church tell him he's a hypocrite (and he really hates it when people call him that.) So he tried to get me to call him one, and I refused. I told him, he's an entertainer with an audience, and outside of that I don't know him. At some point they asked us what our churches were like and Gary told them we're the type of churches that make all the Christians mad. Wally, said that we're the type of guys that start churches in strip malls and movie theaters. That was when the conversation got directed over to a multi site mega church in town. They asked if we knew the name and I told them it was NorthPoint Community Church.

Our interview lasted all of about 20 seconds. Afterwards, I started thinking about all that was said and realized that neither Gary nor I mentioned the location or names of our churches. We were caught off guard by their questions but I somehow plugged NorthPoint. Oh well.

In the end they thought we were cool guys to come down and hang out with them. Then they went onto a girl who looked like she had been used quite a few times. It turns out she was a groupie and they started interviewing her about all the bands she had been with.

My Experience With Portable Church Industries

2006-03-01T15:52:00.000-05:00

There have been a couple of posts concerning Portable Church Industries lately. They even have their own blog. Over the past two years, I've talked with a number of church planters who have and have not used PCI. Just this week, I had a consultation and we are currently pouring over their recommendation. We've not made a decision on what we'll do. I thought I would share with you my thoughts and experience.

What Church Planters Should Know About PCI:

They're not for everyone. PCI has stated this a number of times and would be the first to tell you. When it is said they're not for everyone, that could be a number of different reasons. One of which may be price. Ask them why the price though, and they'll tell you
They are a ministry. I've talked with PCI about this at length. They're committed to the work of the kingdom and helping make churches better. I was extremely satisfied with our consultant and his broad knowledge of ministry, building codes, equipment, sound and video engineering to name just a few. Now some church planters may question what is meant by "ministry." After all, they're a for profit group and just because your committed believers doesn't make a company a ministry. However, from what I've been told, they refuse to work with non Christian ministry organizations. Throughout my time with them, they've demonstrated a genuine desire and concern to further the Gospel and equip churches to do so too.
Their target is: quality, portability and customization (my opinion). They're not going to build cheap cases. They're not going to recommend cheap equipment. You're probably not going to find American DJ on their product list. They have your volunteers in mind. They understand volunteer burnout and they want their product to be as portable as possible. They also understand that a movie theater is different from a school and a school cafeteria is different from a gym. There's not a product in America that you'll find these three characteristics that you also won't find a price to match. Their prices match their quality, portability and customization. They don't buy in bulk. They don't keep stock.
I've not heard one church planter whose used PCI saying they wish they hadn't. If anything, the guys I've talked with say they highly recommend PCI. However, I've also talked with guys who haven't used PCI and are doing great.

What PCI Needs To Know About Church Planters: (not implying they don't)

Church Planters are a resourceful group. Church Planters have to know how to stretch a dime. This will be your biggest obstacle as a growing company that seeks quality. Church Planters will choose lesser quality to make the dime stretch and may worry about the quality post launch. If we can find a $1000 video projector on eBay to get us through the first 6 months, we may very well go with it. We may spend more in long run only because we don't have the upfront money to get it in the beginning. We have to balance Outreach/Evangelism with Equipment. Any church planter who spends 80% of their budget on equipment and 20% on outreach would be doing the wrong thing. PCI knows that.
Church Planters struggle with the difference between quality equipment and quality ministry. We recognize that some guys have planted churches with very little equipment and grown rapidly and there are those who've had the best equipment in town and yet had very little impact in the community. Church Planters are some of the most tech savvy guys in ministry (I'm not one of them.) We want quality equipment but we'll sacrifice it in a heartbeat if we can reach more people. AND we also know that there are some people we may not keep if we don't have quality equipment.
Church planters are a competitive breed. Having said that, there can easily be a sense of the "haves" and "have nots". If you use PCI, you must have a highly funded church plant. If you're not well funded then you can't even get close to PCI, which may not be true.

My recommendations that I've shared with PCI: (I'm sharing them with you only because I've shared them with my consultant.)

PCI ought to support a mission. As a for profit group, they ought to share what they're doing for missions. Other companies like Chic-fil-a demonstrate their support. Since, I'm passionate about Church Planting, I suggested reimbursing Church Plants for the consultation if they purchase 50% of the $ on the final invoice. OR support a Church Planting organization. OR support some other mission.
PCI ought to setup a non-profit ministry called Portable Church Consulting. In this, they not only consult on equipment but also visioneering, target demographic and strategy and outreach. They visit hundreds of churches across America. They see all sorts of ideas and strategies. They have ministry experience that could be worth sharing if they packaged it right.
PCI ought to consider how they can offer a second product line that is lesser expensive product (a.k.a cheaper): It might be worth looking into a product that isn't as light, durable, high quality, so that guys who are still in need might be able to purchase and then post launch upgrade to higher quality if need be. You can buy the Ford or the Mercedes. Its a quality control issue.

My experience:

The consultation was extremely helpful. Especially, for a guy like me whose not a techy. It was also an opportunity for me to be asked questions that I may not have thought of. It was also an opportunity to envision and cast vision for StonePoint.
The consultant was extremely professional. I knew I had a guy who understood buildings. As soon as we walked in to a local restaurant, he immediately looked all around. He reminded me of myself. When I go to a new town, I immediately look for locations to start a new church and look at the people to identify the target audience. Not to mention, my consultant had served on staff in a portable church for a long time. I noticed he even pulled some demographics from Link2Lead.
As for their recommendation. I haven't found anything that is out of place or overpriced. That's not to say it can't be found cheaper elsewhere and/or that we couldn't get by with less. PCI knows that and even during their consultation the consultant skipped stuff that we knew we wanted but wasn't practical at this point. I appreciate the integrity of what they recommended.

So the big question, would I recommend them? YES and no. You know your plant. I don't. They're not for everyone as they've said and you can't recommend something to everyone that's not for everyone.

Partner Raising

2006-02-23T21:14:00.000-05:00

Over the past two and a half years, I've been around a lot of church planters. I've not heard one church planter say, "I'm great at fundraising." But I have heard a lot of them say, "I'm horrible at fundraising." God didn't call us to fundraising anyway. Great or horrible, I do think there are a number of ideas to consider when raising partners to help support the vision for a church plant.
Let me also say, my church planter friends think I've raised more money than I really have. Personally, I take it as a compliment. I can say I've raised more partners than they think I have. Money doesn't matter, for me it's about the partners. My goal is to share with you what I've researched, done, and seen others do. I believe we are living the greatest adventure in the Kingdom and God wants people to partner. So, here are some assumptions:

You have a God given vision. People are giving toward something that is God given, has been bathed in prayer, God sized and will honor His kingdom. This isn't just some idea you're asking God to bless. This is more important than you think, you'll see in a moment.
It's not about the money. You're not fundraising. If you say its a matter of semantics, then I believe there is a heart issue that needs to be dealt with. Fundraising is for the United Way and other organizations. We're given a vision for a church, not to raise money, but to raise up partners who will come alongside the vision.
It's not about the amount of money. No doubt you've set a goal that you desire to reach in order to make the vision happen. But when it comes down to it, it's not about the amount of money that people give to help reach that goal. It's about how God can accomplish the vision with what is given. I've seen guys with a half million do far less than guys with $50K.
You're asking people to give above their tithe to their local church. It's not up to us to transfer God's kingdom resources. People may have all sorts of reasons as to why they want to give to your church plant instead of their local church, but I've not heard one reason that honors God and maintains the integrity of the gift. If they insist, ask them to talk to the leadership of their church. Call potential partners to accountability.
You're tithing. You would think that doesn't have to be said.

Now that we have those assumptions, here are the ideas and thoughts:

Have a "God Given Vision Perspective" (It's not about you): You've got a God given vision, then He's also called others to partner in that vision. God didn't call you to be alone in the vision. God has called you to be obedient to the vision. To be obedient to the vision is to call others to join in that vision and partner with their resources. Before each time I've talked with partners, I've reminded myself its not about me, its about the vision. If people and churches partner, then its because God has compelled them to partner. If they don't partner, then God has not compelled them to partner. That sounds like I'm saying you're absolved of any responsibility, but I'm not. You asking people to partner is not about them, its about you and your trust in God. You're not doing this because you're capable, you're doing this because God has made you capable.
Get a "Cornerstone Partner" first. Go for the easy "Yes" first. Find those partners who will act as a cornerstone for other potential partners to build upon. This can be a credibility issue. You need a partner that will give you credibility. Hopefully, this will be a mother church or as in my case a strategic partnership of churches. You will be asked, "How much have you raised so far?"
If you're casting a big vision, cast a big net. I've heard too many church planters cast a compelling vision but then cast a small net. Quite honestly, their budgets don't align with their vision. Many of the people we'll approach understand budgets. When they don't see the two align, then they see red flags. Your budget should be 20% bigger than your vision. Why 20%? 20% sounds good. Choose a % and go with it.
Customize your vision and net to your potential partner. I've heard guys talk about how they've gone to big churches and small using the same approach. I'm not saying it can't work, but customize it. Don't cast a big vision to a church that doesn't understand big vision. Likewise, don't cast a small vision to a church with big vision. Personally, God has given me a vision for StonePoint to be a significant partner in launching over 100 churches in the next 25 years. I didn't tell every church that, because some churches were wondering how do you launch one, let alone 100. Other churches wanted to know that they were giving to something larger than just StonePoint. Customize your prospectus and your message. One approach doesn't reach all. Always ask for more than what you know they may be willing to commit to.
Know your potential partner. Do your homework. Know their vision, core values and catch phrase. Tie the two visions together. Make it a point to cast their vision back to them and tell them how they will be fulfilling their vision by partnering with your church plant. If they don't have one, find out what they're passionate about. One of my partners was adamant about not partnering with a church plant in the "Bible Belt." I found out by asking the Mission Pastor, "What does your team need to hear from me?" He told me and I went in to that meeting locked and loaded on why we need another church in the Bible belt. I later found out that about 80% of their mission's team didn't want to partner. After the meeting, they told me that I challenged them to rethink their church planting efforts.
Know your launch date. Have a launch date and know it. I was surprised to have a guy ask me, "What's your launch date?" The question caught me so off guard that I almost forgot it. After all he was holding my prospectus in his lap and the date was right on the cover. Don't fumble that question.
Don't do the "I just mailed out over 100 letters!" routine. Be strategic! Before I began the process of launching StonePoint, I served on a church plant staff for two years. In order to do so, I had to raise my salary for those two years. Over half of the people I mailed letters to partnered with me in ministry. That's 50%! Again, I credit God with compelling people to do so. But I can say, I didn't treat people like an address. I only mailed as many letters as I could follow up with in one week. I wrote personal letters, not business letters (still be professional i.e. letterhead). I talked about how they impacted my life and ministered to me; how they were responsible for bringing me to church planting. I included a packet of information about church planting (not a prospectus). I also told people in my letter that I would call them and ask if they had any questions. You can't effectively follow up with 100 people the week after you mail them a letter. (If you've already done this, stop reading this blog and get on the phone.)
Give a self addressed envelope with a commitment card. Give people specific levels to partner with. You decide what the levels are. Don't aim too high, without aiming too low. Always include a blank and one time gift opportunity. Still give a personal phone call and give them the commitment card. Some people will want to pray about it, some people will put it in their bill holder and come back to it when they pay their bills.
Always ask for "Prayer Partners." This is not an "opt-out." If you think it is, then you're underestimating prayer. You can spin it if you want, but I treat my Prayer Partners like my financial partners. More miracles come out of prayer than money.
Have a monthly newsletter. For me this is my PrayerPoints newsletter. Each month, I send a newsletter to all my partners (prayer and financial.) I've recently gone electronic through Constant Contact, but before that I had a form newsletter out of publisher. It was simple front and back, folded in half with space for an address label on card stock paper. However, for my financial partners, I always included a self addressed, stamped envelope, with a personal letter mailed in an envelope.
Sometimes "No" means "Yes." Periodically, throughout the year I would send out an opportunity to partner with a special project. I've had some "No" partners become partners because of my newsletter and/or they wanted to partner with a particular project. During my two years at a church plant, I asked people to partner with me and my wife to send us to a church planting conference. We not only raised partners for one conference but two conferences.
Call every now and then. I programmed my partners in my cell phone. They knew when I was sitting in the Atlanta traffic because I would call them, thank them, and let them know the difference they're making. More than that I would call and see how God is working in their lives. I would ask, "How has God blessed you by being a partner?" I can't tell you the number of times when I called up partners to talk with them and they encouraged me more than I did them.
Get every dime you can get. And know when to say when. I'm not sure I believe the first part, but it is what I've been told and hear others saying. I can say there was a time when I was raising partners for my salary at the previous church plant and I knew I didn't need to send another letter or make another phone call. Trust me, we still made in two years what some guys make in one and I believe it was right where God wanted us. No when He is saying, "Stop." It's God compelling people to partner with you.
Be Creative! We just had a baby shower for StonePoint. We've raised half of our needs for the nursery and preschool ministries. We still have one more baby shower that we're praying we fulfill all of our needs for these ministries. Ask partners to sponsor and support outreach events. They may not be willing to make a commitment, but they may be willing to take on an outreach event.
Always say Thank You! Don't ever forget this one. Pray for them and constantly thank God for them.

Again, I haven't raised all the money to accomplish the vision we have for StonePoint. I don't believe God would allow that. There has to be faith. I can say that I am excited about the partners we have, their commitment to pray for us, and to know I am not alone. Together, we'll accomplish the vision.

StonePoint Update

2006-02-22T09:32:00.000-05:00

So here's the latest on StonePoint.

We've added 12 families to our launch team since January 1st. That's puts us at, well 12 families! I'm pretty pumped about coming into an area where we've known no one and now God has brought 12 families.
Praying that God continues to bring 5 families a month between now and launch. That would be over 40 families before we launch.
Creating a buzz about a "Church In A Theater". We bought the domain www.ChurchInATheater.com. But more than that, you know you're creating a buzz when you've got unchurched people telling other unchurched people that they need to check out a church that doesn't even meet yet.
We've got two potential staff members (both part time until launch, then one full time) that are extremely talented. I am excited about this team and their talents that they bring to StonePoint.
Joined the Chamber of Commerce, looking to connect with local business leaders.
Officially came off staff at LifePoint Christian Church. They threw a baby shower for StonePoint and we racked up almost half of what we need for the nursery and preschool. If you're feeling generous you can buy a gift for StonePoint off our registry at Babies R Us, Target or Wal-Mart (just search under Scott Whitaker).
Setup QuickBooks Online
Continue to set up office in a local coffee shop. Meeting new people and connecting with the community.

Thanks to Scott Harris!

2006-02-14T09:36:00.000-05:00

Scott Harris had a super bowl contest on who could guess the final score. Well I had to pull for my home team and obviously they won. So thanks Scott for the two tickets. I hope you Seattle guys have recovered by now.

What I've Learned As A "Blog Reader"

2006-02-01T08:47:00.000-05:00

Here's a look inside my just some of my bloglines.
I can go to the Creative Church Conference without dropping a dime! Thanks to Mark Batterson
I found the solution to my accounting needs. Thanks to Matt Payne
All things marketing! Thanks to Seth Godin
Dealing with critics. Thanks to Perry Noble
Share in the journey of other Church Planters. Thanks to Planter Blogs
More marketing. Thanks to Church Marketing Sucks
Don't take yourself too seriously. Thanks to Gary Lamb
There is a such thing as free! Thanks to InBubblewrap (I've won twice!)

Encouraging Words From A Good Friend

2006-02-01T08:27:00.000-05:00

I was talking to a good friend of mine about church planting, leadership and life. He's a very opinionated guy and I always enjoy talking with him, so I wasn't surprised when he said, "By the way man, your blog sucks!" To which I responded, "Honestly I can't disagree!"
I've been thinking about this and I've come to a conclusion that I'm a "blog reader" instead of a "blog feeder." I enjoy reading other people's blogs, but I'm not sure that I enjoy posting unless its going to benefit someone's ministry. Not to mention, when you're planting a church there are so many other things to be doing. So, I'll continue to be a "reader" and if I think I've found something, I'll let you know.
Hey Friend, thanks for the laughs (and advice)!

No Job Description

2006-01-25T14:33:00.000-05:00

Check out this link at Church Staffing.com. Apparently, no one has a job description for a Church Planter. My guess is no one really knows and Church Planters don't really care.

Jack of All Trades

2006-01-06T14:05:00.000-05:00

Jason Hatley from the Journey Church on NY was interviewed by Pastors.com on worship pastors and their role in church plants. Click here to read the entire article. Some of my favorite quotes are:

“Go with who God gives you.”

“More important than the bells and whistles of the equipment are the people to whom you are ministering.”

“Am I the guy who does worship or am I going to be the pastor of the people serving.”

“We try to make our church look like twice its size.”

Atlanta Stewardship Conference

2006-01-03T12:01:00.000-05:00

Hey if you're in Atlanta or close by, I encourage you to check out this Stewardship Conference. It will be led by Nelson Searcy of the Journey Church of New York. Nelson is one of the coaches for Church Planters for Purpose Driven. He has a number of practical resources for church planters and those thinking of planting.
The conference is on Jan. 18th and is only $25! You can follow this link for more info. www.epicteam.org/atlanta

New Name

2005-12-26T12:07:00.000-05:00

I've changed the name of my blog to "Living Life Forward". I figured that Living Life Forward sounds better than "Scott Whitaker."
"Living Life Forward" is our motto, tagline, mantra or pithy saying for StonePoint Church. We take our core values from the each letter in the word FORWARD. I'll blog on that later. Hope you like the name change.

My Wife and I Made Out In The Pulpit . . .

2005-12-24T10:11:00.000-05:00

Well maybe not, but we did eat dinner in a pulpit! We just celebrated our 9 year anniversary. We went to a fondue restaurant in Buckhead called Dante's Down the Hatch. They have a ship inside the restaurant surrounded by water and live crocodiles! Down in the Lower Deck of the ship is where they have a live jazz band. We were the first ones in at 6:00 and we got the best seat in the house. We were reading the menu and looking around at all the antiques they have. One of the antiques is an 18th century pulpit from Europe. Then suddenly my wife said I think we're sitting in the pulpit. The waitress came by and we asked her and she said yeah and pointed to a sign above our heads that read, "Confessions daily from 5:00-7:00." My wife and I laughed and we told her I was a Pastor. The food was great although we were looking forward to the chocolate fondue. We found out that you have to have a two day advance order and the minimum order is 6. Apparently they knead the chocolate by hand for eight hours. Dante himself prepares it at your table and it takes two hours to eat. (I'm thinking staff Christmas party next year.) So we capped the dinner off by requesting the band to play Baby Its Cold Outside from the movie Elf.
I love having our Anniversary and Christmas together. It forces me to slow down and remember that even though what we do as Pastors/Church Planters is important, its still not more important than our wives and families.
Have an awesome Christmas!

Legal Junk

2005-12-20T13:17:00.000-05:00

It may not be necessary, but I tell ya the application for 501c3 is rediculous. I've been up to my nose in legal applications for StonePoint. I'll be glad when this is all over! Maybe then I can get back to blogging more.

Two Apprentices

2005-12-15T12:15:00.000-05:00

I want to go on record and say that my guess is the Donald is going to hire both Randall and Rebecca. Both have proved themselves. Not to mention that NBC has tried to put so many twists and turns in the season they’re looking to cap it off with a huge surprise. We’ll see.

Praying For The Community

2005-12-08T09:33:00.000-05:00

I'm loving Newnan. As I travel around from place to place, I look around and see people who are in need of a relevant church. I can easily see StonePoint being a place where they can worship. Just the other night as my family and I went out for dinner, I looked around the restaurant and could easily picture each person at StonePoint. I find myself praying for the people I see. I pray that God lead them to himself. I pray that StonePoint will be a church where they can discover, connect and grow in relationship with Christ and other people. I know that StonePoint will not be a place for everyone, especially for the already connected. But, I do pray that God continue to make me sensitive to those who are unconnected and that He uses StonePoint to lead them into a relationship.