Saturday, August 10, 2013

Cold Hard Facts On Church Planting, PART 12



25. Numbers is a book of the Bible that has nothing to do with your Sunday average attendance. 



It doesn't take very long in the process of church planting before the "numbers" game starts playing with your heard.  Every pastor's fellowship you attend ends up being a "who's running more" event.  I finally came up with an answer that not only helped me divert the subject but it also seemed to get my point across to the inquisitive nature of those wanting to check us by our attendance.  When I'm asked, "How many are ya'll running Brother?" I now reply, "We can't even keep up with how many we're running. But we only count the one's we're actually catching." You see my friend it doesn't matter how long you are at this thing of pastoring, you will never get away from this question.  It's so very distracting.  You feel like you have to make excuses or dart around the issue.  We have been conditioned to measure everything we do by the "bigness" of it.  This can lead to some long and discouraging nights for a church planter.  We can get consumed with averages and the statistical data of our growth.  Now don't get me wrong, we count, we chart and we plan. But we do not use it as a measuring rod for our success or for our failure.  Numbers fluctuate according to a lot of variables.  Your church has a context based on the demographic of people that you are called to reach.  Ultimately numbers are souls that we are reaching and impacting for the Kingdom.  The numbers don't lie, but they do tease. You'll think that you're knocking it out of the park for a month and then everyone decides to go on vacation at the same time.  You can plan a huge attendance day, have it fall flat, and then two weeks later have the largest attendance for no reason and with no preparation.  It's crazy, but it's life.  It's okay to keep counting as long as that's not what your counting on for success.  People come and people go.  Numbers will always be a revolving door.  We are called to Gospel correctness and ministerial faithfulness.  Leave the results to God.  

26. If you do something too long people start making it Biblical. 



People have a unique way of getting into a rut and allowing what they've always done to be the sum total of what they always want.  It's been said that the definition of true insanity is "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result." If you're not very careful you will create great limitations within the church plant that will be difficult to manage out of later.  You have to make lots of room for change an active part of who you are as a church body.  The smallest tweaks and changes can help you become a healthy church with a desire to move forward.  To give you the scope of this task let's think of an exercise.  In your mind, go to a church that's been around for more than 10 years.  Now think of how they do things.  There's a certain way they take the offering. They have announcements at a certain time.  The bulletin is prepared with flawless repetitiveness.  The style of the worship has the exact same flow.  The times of the services have always been in concrete. The building has taken on a look that is all too familiar.  That's just the starting point.  However, now think of what the reactions would be if on one weekend you went full color on the bulletin, moved the offering to a different time during the service, added one song of a different style, put the announcements on the screens, painted the walls and added a few minutes of length to the message.  You already know what would happen. All hell would break loose.  People would gripe, grumble, gossip and threaten the leadership with everything short of public execution.  Is it because they are wicked miscreants with a vendetta against the church?  NO. It's because we've trained them to hate change, embrace ordinary and rebel against anything that encroaches upon the "we've never seen it on this wise" mentality. About right now you're smirking as you read.  Why?  Because you know it's the absolute truth.  If you don't make changes, you are going to make more mistakes in the long run.  I'm not talking about consistency.  There's definitely something to be said about consistency.  But don't ever confuse that with predictable. Always showing up to do the same thing IS NOT what Biblical Christianity promotes.  As a matter of fact I find it perfectly normal as I study in depth the Book of Acts to have no idea what comes next.  The early church didn't live by tradition and it's secret to success wasn't "sameness."  It was built on the unpredictable movement of the Holy Spirit. "Suddenly" was a word that defined their structure.  The best thing you can do is purposely change things up at times.  Don't let people fall into the mindset that everything has to always be the same.  I bet you a dollar to a donut that many of you are reading this right now and you could make a list in 5 minutes as to what you are "locked" into that you would love to see changed.  Well, why not start writing that list right now, pray for wisdom, go to your team and immediately pull a whamy on folks this weekend.  If you're worried about who will leave over these little changes, worry no more because they're going to.  Just know this: The people that leave because they are married to a model or to a silly tradition aren't going to stick around anyhow.  Love them, but let them go.  If you don't they will hijack the entire church.  Chances are for some of you that has already happened.

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