Here's something I learned from my recent meeting with a church consultant---nothing that he taught me, but some things that I perceived in the way he handled the meeting with me. One of the most important things a person in leadership can learn is how to offer constructive criticism to an employee …
Free Demographics
I just came across a wonderful set of resources for free demographic information. One of the coolest sites I've seen in a while is run by USAToday: http://www.usatoday.com/news/bythenumbers/front.htm But, for many resources all packed together, check out this …
Churches and Marketing
As a result of reading a couple of blogs on a regular basis, I'm getting increasingly interested in marketing. As a church planter, marketing is something that I will soon have to be dealing with directly, but I'm amazed to see the key points of crossover between the world of marketing today and the …
We need a name
I know it has taken me far too long since I last wrote to my blog, but the weather here is pretty cold and my fingers just won't type as well as they should! I spoke with Steve over at the Midwest Church Planting office to see what it's going to take for us to start drawing support from them so …
What’s in a name?
I posted this over at our church plant website (www.lafayetteinitiative.com), but I'm copying it here for those who don't read the other site too much. Please post your comments, and if you want to participate in our church name straw poll, click here. And whether you can participate in the poll or …
Why shouldn’t everyone plant a church?
Well, this is an interesting take on the whole church planting thing. According to this article, everyone should plant a church. Bob Hyatt claims that there are two schools of thought on church planting. In my words, they are these: It's only for the elite and super-gifted because it's really …
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10 Guiding Financial Principles
I saw this over at kluth.org: The following 10 church policies and principles were developed by Brian Kluth and the church elders for use at Harvest Community Church: Preamble At the church leadership meeting on January 6th, the following written financial policies and principles were …
I have a coach!
Jen and I are starting a church with Midwest Church Planting a ministry of the Midwest Baptist Conference. The head of Midwest Church Planting has just assigned me a coach for the church planting process. Now, I have someone to talk to about all things church planting! My coach is Richard Wollard …
Leave the church?
I'm not even done with this article yet, but I can already sense that it's worth putting up here. You won't regret taking the time to read it. Detoxing from Church …
“Longing for a Church”
I recently read an article from "Brother Maynard" at Subversive Influence in which he identifies the 9 things he is looking for in a church. This list is interesting to me because Brother Maynard is a self-confessed member of the emerging church movement which really is just a term to refer to …
The cat’s out of the bag
My wife and I have just recently told our congregation that we are following God's leading to start a new church in Lafayette, Indiana. We've been thinking and praying about church planting for some time, and I even had a (secret) weblog about our initial investigations into church planting and …
Supposed to make a real decision
Well, the Vision Team of our church has asked Jen and me to make an announcement on Sunday letting the congregation know that we are being led to start a new church. We had all agreed that it would be okay and even a good thing to let the congregation know before we knew where we were going to go. I …
A decision has been made!
Well, it’s not the BIG decision, but it is a little decision. Jen and I will be telling our congregation this Sunday that God is leading us into church planting. We don’t have a definite location, and we don’t have a definite timeframe, but the indications all point to the fact …
Indianapolis & Lafayette
Jen and I visited Indianapolis this weekend. There are some areas of Indianapolis that are absolutely booming with growth. It truly is remarkable to see that on the north side of the city, there are some counties with the highest growth rates in the nation. On the south side of the city, there is …
Chesterton: Met with Pastor Neil
Last week I had the chance to meet with Pastor Neil Horner of Duneland Community Church. He generously offered to buy me lunch even though we hadn’t met before. We had a great conversation and I picked up on a few significant things: He is passionate about seeing the community impacted for …
Jen says she knows
My wife told me last week that she already has a sense from God regarding where we should plant a church. She isn’t telling me yet because I don’t have a clear sense yet. However, I think I know where it is that she is feeling called to. I also have a sense that I know where we are going …