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Tag Archives: Church planting

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From Me to The G (or how I got over 1,200 visitors per day to my blog but couldn’t keep them)

Apr 3, 2012 4:22 pm by Paul Jenkins in Church planting, Church stuff, From Me to The G

The Gathering logoThat may be the longest title for a post on my blog ever, and it probably needs a bit of explaining.  Every week on Tuesday (plus or minus a day most weeks) I write a little blog post called “From Me to The G” and it’s basically my thoughts about the weekend worship experience that we just had at the church we’re planting in Albemarle, North Carolina, called The Gathering.  If you get bored with this post, feel free to check out the church site to get a feel for what we’re all about.

Anyway, the point of the title is that I ran a little experiment over the week-end here that made me a bit of a blogging rock star for a couple of days and it reminded me of how important it is that we never over-promise and under-deliver as a church.  On Friday, as I was scrolling through my wall on Facebook, I noticed a couple of my friends liked a link entitled “Look what this girl is wearing at the beach in front of thousands of people” that was accompanied with a picture of – you guessed it – a girl on the beach in a bikini.  ”Busted!” was the first thing that went through my mind (since I knew my friends had followed a link just to see more), and then I thought that a quick Google search might reveal the truth behind this obvious scam.

I clicked the first result and found a page saying it probably wasn’t a harmful scam or virus, but that it wasn’t wise to click the link on Facebook.  The author made a comment about how his blog had blown up lately with people searching for answers about the lady on the beach, and suddenly I had an idea.

I would write a blog post basically saying nothing and title it “Look what this girl is wearing at the beach in front of thousands of people” and see what my blog stats would do.  I posted it halfway through Friday and ended that day with 584 visitors (up from the 200/day I typically see).

Saturday was 1,250, Sunday was 1,143, Monday was 555 and today is trending back down to the 350 range.

The point?  It’s not that hard to draw a crowd, but you better have something to give them or they won’t stay around.

What does this mean for The Gathering and any other church plant (or existing churches for that matter)?  It means we need to have more invested in this thing than just great marketing and events to get people in the doors.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that (thanks, Seinfeld!), but growth is better if it’s more than just a high water mark on a couple of Sundays in the calendar year.

Like “We Want Justin Shirtless Tour” on Twitter, the goal is for our attendance to trend upwards over time, not bounce up and down like a bobber in the water as fish nibble and leave.

At The Gathering, I’m thrilled to say that while we aren’t ashamed to count the numbers, we’re more than just about the numbers.  We are committed to being good stewards of the people those number s represent.


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The who explains the how

Jun 22, 2011 8:45 am by Paul Jenkins in Church planting, General Stuff

Often when I read the Bible, I realize how very different the way I want God to operate is from the way He actually does.  We place a high premium on planning and knowing, on crossing the T’s and dotting the I’s, and there’s nothing wrong with any of those specific things, it’s just that they aren’t the first things on God’s to-do list for establishing His will in this world.  It seems He’s much more concerned with obedience, trust, and our willingness to go “all in” when He asks us to.

I know most of you didn’t like reading that, so here are some rock solid examples in Scripture that back it up.

1.  Abraham – called to leave his country and go “to a land I will show you” in Genesis 12:1
2.  Gideon – told to “get up [and] go down against the camp because I am going to give it into your hands” in Judges 7:9
3.  Peter – simply told to “come” in Matthew 14:29

Those are enough to help you have some interesting quiet times over the next few days, but for now, let’s unpack the third example because I think it reveals a lot to us about the way we often respond to the call of God into new areas.  In fact, I’ve found that “how” is often the first question we ask, but it’s usually the last question God answers.  Peter’s story shows what can happen when we trust first, and unfortunately, what can happen when we begin to try and figure out the how.

To his credit, he obeyed.  He had told Jesus to call him out of the boat, and when Jesus gave him the one-word call, Peter slipped his leg over the edge of the boat and stood up on the water.  I don’t know if he was quick about it, or if he took the time to put some weight on one foot to test it before totally leaving the security of the boat, but let’s just give the man props for getting out of the boat at all.  There were, after all, 11 others who didn’t.

Even we don’t do what Peter did.  If you or I had been in that boat, we may very well have believed that Jesus was calling us out of the boat, but we would have asked a lot of “how” questions first.

“How will You cause the liquid to become solid?”

“How will You keep the waves from crashing on me as I walk to You?”

“How far will I be walking?”

“How long will it take to reach You?”

All good questions that are motivated by the greatest one of all: “How will You keep me safe?”

Now we get to it, don’t we?  The sticking point behind our incessant need to understand the how of what God is calling us to do.  It is our need to feel safe, protected, secure even though what He may be calling us to is unknown and more than likely, much bigger than we are.  We can’t quite wrap our brains around the enormity of it all, and so we start asking how?  Typically, we don’t even make it as far as Peter, but even Peter eventually starting asking how, as well.

“How is this possible?”

“How am I still walking on water?”

“How much longer can I do this before I sink?”

As we learn from Peter’s quick trip on – and into – the water, it doesn’t take too many how questions before our eyes lose sight of Jesus, and often, the difference between the wrong first question and the right one is simply moving one letter.

Do that, and “how” becomes “who.”

Who called you? (1 Thessalonians 5:24)

Who has defeated every power that can try to stop you? (Colossians 2:15)

Who is for you, and if He is, who can be against you? (Romans 8:31)

Who has given you every spiritual blessing you need? (Ephesians 1:3)

Who has prepared good works for you to do? (Ephesians 2:10)

These are much better first questions, and while there are times to ask how, it is a question that only needs to be asked when we’ve settled the question of who.  After all, it’s hard to go all in for a method, but it’s not hard to go all in for a man.  Answer who the man is, and you’ll find that how becomes much less critical as long as you’re following the right One.

He is faithful, and He will do it.  Once we’ve settled that, how He does it becomes part of the adventure.


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The ups and downs of collaboration

Jun 11, 2011 11:58 am by Paul Jenkins in Church planting, The Gathering

Among other things that need to happen in the early stages of church planting is value setting.  Now, it’s easy to put too much emphasis on this, and as a result, become stuck as you determine what the new church will value.  It’s even easier to feel like the process is too slow and become very dictatorial by saying, “Here’s what I value and so will you.”  I can only say that for us at The Gathering, this step has been mostly frustrating, and will hopefully prove to be freeing.

The good and bad of the process to this point:

  1. Collaboration, by it’s very nature, takes time.  You absolutely cannot rush this part of the planting, even though the passion and excitement for the new plant makes you want to.  You’ll find yourself tempted to give out a sheet of 5 values you’ve copied from another church just so you can start sooner.  Don’t.
  2. If you do copy values from another church, pick them apart as a group and make them your own.
  3. Sometimes people will not talk.  This makes it even harder to collaborate.
  4. You must actively lead this part of the planting.  That means either you need to be a great facilitator or you need to find one on your team.  I’ve learned after the first 3 attempts with our initial launch group that I am NOT the best at this process.  Thankfully, one of our team members actually does this kind of stuff for a living, and so he’ll be leading the 20-30 minute value-setting exercises from here on out while I teach on them.
  5. There’s a lot of information out there about why values are necessary, but very little that I’ve found about how to actually go about determining them for you church.  I’ll be posting some of what we do in the future.
  6. There’s a temptation for your values to be different from the values of every other church ever planted in the history of church planting.  Just reading that sentence should reveal the absurdity in that thinking.  Since all values are ultimately coming from Scripture, they’re going to be similar.
  7. You may have a lot of value statements, but they should probably all be grounded in a smaller number of core values. Here’s an example: At The Gathering, we recognize that we will know less today than we will tomorrow.  That’s a great statement based on the core values of discipleship and learning, as well as community because it demands that we give grace to others who are still learning.
  8. This process will make your head feel like it’s going to pop off.  I think that’s normal, because this is the process made popular by 2 year-olds who ask “why” after everything you tell them.  It’s annoying and the biggest reason parents started using the phrase, “Because I said so, that’s why!”  Unfortunately, that may not always be the best answer when a first-time visitor asks you why you expect people to give in the offering.  Core values about community and generosity and Scripture may carry more weight.  It takes a lot of “whys” to get to the simplest and strongest answers.
  9. Have lots of coffee and sit in comfortable chairs, preferably with cup holders.
  10. Because they’re called core values, there’s an underlying pressure to say the right thing the first time because you don’t want to look like an idiot by saying something is core when it may not be.  You won’t have them right immediately.  It’s a process.  Say it, clarify it, and try saying it again.  And breathe.

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A Miraculous Week

May 15, 2011 12:09 pm by Paul Jenkins in Church planting, The Gathering

As the B99 and I continue on this journey of a church plant here in Stanly County, it is, as anyone would tell you that has been down this road, an up and down experience.  We find ourselves one day ready to take on anything, and the next day cowering from everything.  Journeys of faith are hard to explain because they are better understood by experiencing them.

One of the obvious needs in a church plant is funding, but before that can ever be expected, a clear call from God must be in the heart of the planter.  So often we chase things that are crucial, but not the most important.  For Wendy and I, the clear call after 2-3 years of uncertainty has been the number one benefit that has come out of the journey so far.

All that to say this: in one week, after God made very clear to us the calling He’s placed in our hearts for a new church in Stanly County, He has miraculously provided the $30,000 we need in order to qualify for the matching funds available from the Assemblies of God’s Church Multiplication Network.  First, in a meeting about 704 (the youth center That Youth Thing is bringing to Stanly County), one of the men asked about the church plant and on the spot committed $10,000 to it.  Then, the next Sunday I was allowed, at the last minute, to speak to our church about what God has been doing in our ministry over the last few years.  I did mention to Pastor Bob that I didn’t want to make the formal church planting announcement that night, and he agreed.  Of course, he ended the Sunday morning service with, “You won’t want to miss tonight!  Paul’s got some exciting news to share!!”  Great.

I ended up sharing from Acts 16 about how God led Paul to Troas through a series of closed doors, and that in Troas – a place of wondering and confusion – God expanded Paul’s vision to include another continent before bringing Paul back to Asia, which is where he wanted to go all along.  I stopped short of saying our “new continent” was a new church, but did mention the need in our county for a church that could speak into the lives of 18-35 year olds.

When service was over, a gentleman handed me an envelope and said, “Acts would never have been written without Theohilus funding Paul’s ministry.  I’ll have this to you in a week or so.”  I looked down and saw $20K written on the envelope, and Wendy did the quick math and said, “You know we’ve got the $30,000 without asking for it, right?”

Miraculous.


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