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Breakout Churches

Our staff recently read Breakout Churches by Thom Rainer.  The book was very similar to what Good to Great was for the business world.  That was done on purpose.  Thom and his research team set out to find some churches that broke out of mediocrity and had great success under certain conditions:

• They had to have a period of decline
• They had to break out with the same pastor leading the church the entire time
• They had to have at least 26 conversions/year after breakout
• They had to have no higher than a 20:1 conversion ratio (20 christians for every 1 conversion per year)

Here are some points that hit me:

• It's a sin to be good if God has called us to be great (my favorite!)
• When pastors grew in their leadership, the growth of the church was directly affected in a positive way
• The breakout churches consistently had a vision that was outwardly focused
• Breakout churches faced the brutal facts about their ineffectiveness and changed.  Churches that didn't break out were either in denial of those problems, or didn't have the courage to do something about it.
• Almost all of the breakout churches were influenced by conferences, books, consultations or other similar outside influences.
• Breakout churches had a culture of serious fun

As I read through the book I thought of the countless churches that are declining.  That's probably 95% of the churches in America.  At the Drive Conference Andy Stanley talked about the fact that their are tons of churches that have resources & people, but aren't effective, that are declining and aren't making an impact on their communities.  He said that somebody will figure out how to get those churches to take their resources and marry them with new ideas to actually make an impact. 

I've mentioned a couple times that my BIG prayer is for God to help Baltimore become known for strong, healthy churches, for His glory.  I believe a huge part of making that happen is church planting.  But, I also believe it will take a lot of churches breaking out.  Hopefully somebody can figure out how to do what Andy talked about, here in Baltimore. 

Willow Creek REVEAL & Hybels' Response

Willow Creek released the results of a massive study they did at their church.  REVEAL is the result of that study (click the link for details).  I bought the book and read through it, probably too quickly.  My understanding of the study is that they realized that long-time christians were not as happy at Willow because there didn't seem to be much for them.  Willow realized that they had not done a great job at teaching people how to grow spiritually, on their own. 

Willow is most well known for launching the "seeker movement".  The movement that is based on the idea that churches should be designed to reach unchurched people.  This study doesn't even really have anything to do with that, since the problem wasn't with seekers or new christians.  However, as usual, people started making weird claims that Willow finally realized their errors and abandonded the seeker movement because it was wrong, and of the devil.  Of course, that totally wasn't the case and those people were just fueling their pride.  Bill Hybels, pastor of Willow Creek, responded to some of the criticisms in this video:

 

I'm glad Bill responded.  Sometimes it's hard to decide whether or not to respond.  But, as somebody who doesn't have to deal with the push back, I'm glad he put to words what everybody with half a brain knew to be the case.  It would be hard to actually read about the REVEAL study and think Willow was somehow abandoning their focus on reaching seekers.  It would be easy to not get all the facts and incorrectly assume something else.  That's not all bad, until you start sharing your opinion about something you know nothing about.  I know my first thought when I heard they had done a study was that maybe they realized Willow has too many ministries and needs to simplify.....I assumed, and I was wrong.  Fortunately I checked it out before I formed a real opinion.  I love their transparency, willingness to change, and heart for the Church.

 

Here are some thoughts from other bloggers (and their commentors):

 

Todd Rhoades - Monday Morning Insight

Mark Batterson - Evotional

Tony Morgan

Dave Ferguson

Ben Arment

What are over 1,400 churches doing?

They're doing a series called One Prayer.  One Prayer was an idea started by LifeChurch.tv to unite churches from all around the world by doing the same 4 week message series at the same time.  Churches that are involved will preach one message on their own, talking about what one prayer would they pray for the church at large if they knew God would answer.  Then, they will show 3 videos of other preachers talking about their one prayer.  So, each church will listen to their preacher and listen to 3 preachers from around the world (each church can choose the other 3). 

When I wrote this there were over 1,400 churches involved and they represent over 800,00 attenders.  I love Craig Groeschel's heart for unifying the Church, regardless of denomination or doctrine. 500 Churches will also be started because of One Prayer.  You can read about that here. 

What would YOU pray if God would answer One Prayer for the Church at large?

McChurch?

In a previous blog post I talked about Ed Stetzer's blog posts regarding multisite churches and some questions he posed.  Multisite churches come in all different forms so one can rarely talk about them as a whole and really be able to include every possible model.  Most of the distinctions are in the small things (preaching format, style, location, leadership, etc) but in Ed's article he actually referenced a model that is far less popular than what I'll call standard multisite. 

Standard multisite to me is one church, multiple locations.  One staff, one budget, one eldership, one vision, one language, etc.  Most would fit under that category but Ed called the article "Questions for McChurch".  At the end he said:

"One writer recently wrote about his franchised church--calling it "McChurch--I'm loving it." 

That phrase came from an article in Christianity Today (on their blog here) which was about Eddie Johnson likening his church to a Chick-fil-a franchise.  Eddie is the lead pastor of Cumberland Church - a North Point Strategic Partner.  This method of "multisite" isn't really multisite to me.  Because, it's not one church, multiple locations.  It's two churches, one mission, vision, strategy, values and some of the same preaching on video.  (Not exactly a great tag line).  Each partner church shares all that with North Point but is it's own independent organization with it's own budget and leadership.

The only other church I know of that uses this model as well is Lifechurch.tv (called Network Churches).  If you know of others drop a comment and fill me in.  What do you think about the McChurch model? 

Multisite Questions from Ed Stetzer

Ed Stetzer, the head of Lifeway research wrote an article for Outreach Magazine called "Questions for McChurch".  While Ed isn't anti-multisite or anti-megachurch, he took a "contrarian tone" as he called it by asking tough questions.  He posted the article on his blog in two posts:

http://blogs.lifeway.com/blog/edstetzer/2008/06/questions-for-mcchurch.html

http://blogs.lifeway.com/blog/edstetzer/2008/06/questions-for-questions-for-mc.html

The first blog post had Ed's article and a people commented on Ed's thoughts.  He was really talking about multisite churches that are also attractional in nature (in other words, they design their services to reach people with a wow factor).  But, he also questioned whether multisite churches produce the same level of community, pastoral responsibility and new teachers as non-multisite churches.  My comments on that post asked Ed some questions, one of which he answered:

Nick,

You wrote:

What's the difference between a multisite church (with video preaching) that has 5 locations with a total attendance of 3000 and one megachurch of 3000? Is one better/worse?

And I answer...Ugh... ugh... I pass.

You've got me-- they are similar. Not identical, but similar.

Actually, Andy Stanley and I talked multi-site once and that was his very argument. If you watch the mega-church pastor on the screen and you watch the multi-site pastor on the screen, what's the difference.  There are some differences, and I think the multi-site video venue can complicate it, but consumerism is the danger in both cases.  And, my church planting bias would come through in both cases, multi- and mega.  If churches are being planted, and people are not worried about people "stealing their church members" but are instead sending them out, I would consider that a sign of health and outward focus, mega or multi-site.

It's no surprise that Andy Stanley presented the same argument to Ed since North Point is multisite.  I don't think multsite supporters believe that multisite is better than a megachurch, or vice-versa.  I think they believe they're both just methods and both come with pros and cons.  Obviously they believe the pros outweigh the cons in their case.  CCC is going multisite and we believe it will give us the best chance to reach people who are not a part of any church. 

Louie Giglio & Chris Tomlin in Church Planting...What?

Rumors going around the internet are saying that Louie Giglio and Chris Tomlin are going to plant a church in Atlanta, GA.  The story is that Chris Tomlin made the announcement to his church, Austin Stone Community Church, at one of their partner meetings earlier this month.  Apparently he said he would be back to lead worship at Austin Stone after the Passion World Tour, so if it's true, it can't be that soon. 

Here's a link:

http://human3rror.com/2008/05/11/chris-tomlin-leaving-austin-stone/

It also made it on to Wikipedia already.  I'm amazed at how fast information gets on there:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Tomlin 

If it's true, it brings a lot of questions to mind:

Why?
Why Atlanta, where Louie's home church North Point is alive and kicking?
What does this mean for Passion?
How many churched people will show up because of star appeal?
How will that be received by local churches who will probably whine and cry like crazy?

I was surprised that I couldn't find a comment about it on the 268Blog.  Somebody should go do that....

Whiteboard Sessions Recap

{warning: this is a long post}

So, I had a great time yesterday at The Whiteboard Sessions in Reston, VA.  Check out the previous post to see what it's all about.  Here I'll share some of the main things I took from each speaker and some other random stuff. 

Mark Batterson kicked it off and his big idea was that our big ideas are nothing compared to God's ideas.  He said "when was the last time you confessed your sin of dreaming too small" and it pretty much kicked me in the face.  Here are a couple other points:

• "At some point memory will overtake imagination"
• "Don't just work out of memory"
• "If you don't have any holy discontent, go on a mission trip"

Vince Antonucci was freaking hilarious and started off by telling his story about how he became a Christian when he was 20 without hearing about Jesus from anybody.  Here are some points:

• "How is it possible that I lived in America for 20 years and never heard about Jesus?"
• "We are reaching people, just not lost people"
• "How do you define success in your church"
• "Do lost people like to hang out with you?"

Tim Stevens played some great clips from the show Desperate Housewives, which meant I saw more of that show than I've ever seen.  They were great clips about church myths and problems.  Here are some points:

• "Most churches aren't impacting their communities"
• "Spiritual interest is growing"
• "Leverage the culture or risk losing your impact"

Darrin Patrick talked about idols.  Here are some points:

• "You're ruled by what you worship"
• "An idol is when we serve something created, rather than the creator"
• "We usually know our idols when their threatened"

Mark Dever was the next guy up and he and Darrin were the only two people I hadn't heard of before WiBo.  I learned that Mark was a Baptist pastor and was conservative in theology and methodology but what I didn't know was how kingdom-minded he was.  Read my Kingdom-minded Church Leaders Part 2 post to see why I care so much about that.  Anyhow, his church prays for other churches (all denominations) in their area by name and he gave away all the resources at his table for free because he cares about church leaders.  Here are some points:

• "Our job is to be faithful, not to grow the church"
• "Faith comes from reading God's Word"

John Burke was up right when the after-lunch drowsiness was set in but I didn't have any problems staying awake.  Here are some points from his talk:

• "We can have addiction to self and think God isn't enough"
• "If we just stay connected to the Vine, fruit happens"

Perry Noble was probably my favorite simply because he's funny, in your face and the complete opposite of politically correct.  He talked about pastor's needing to be called, to understand priorities, and needing to defeat temptation.  Here are some points:

• "We don't volunteer for this stuff.  We're called.  If you volunteered you're stupid"
• "If you take pride in the fact that you are called read 1 Corinthians 1:26-31"
• "We have too much imitation and not enough revelation in the church"
• “It will be a cold day in Hell when I preach a message on recycling at the neglect of the Gospel message.”
• “You and I are going to experience temptation and spiritual warfare on a level that others in our congregation will never understand.” - speaking specifically to leaad pastors

Ed Stetzer closed out the day talking about doubt and how doubt is okay. 

• "Thomas went farther than any of the other disciples" - talking geographically
• "Ministry pornography is an unrealistic depiction of something you're never going to have" - talking about the problem with desiring what other churches/ministries have
• "Saying don't ask, just do - leads to a faith that is worthless in times of trouble"
• "You know what they call people who are happy all the time? - Mentally ill"

Random thoughts:

• Perry and Ed totally "punched people in the throat" as Perry would say.  They were challenging.
• I'm too short for conferences where the seats are all on one level.  But, I could see, just barely.
• Warning, TMI coming up - In the bathroom the stall doors were like 100lbs and it shut by itself on my finger, leaving blood under the nail.  Then, I hear Perry Noble (distinct accent) talking to somebody and based on Perry's answers to the guys questions he must not have known who Perry was.  What was funny was that Perry was hitting the stage 3 minutes later. 
• I talked to Carlos Whittaker for the second time in 3 weeks. 
• I met Jay Hardwick and we had an interesting discussion afterwards.
• I follow Chris Elrod's blog and was saddened when I saw this post.  I introduced myself to him just to say that I had been praying for him and his wife, and would continue to do so..........and I did, and I will (I hate it when people say they will and they're really just saying "talk to you later")
• Portable Church Industries had the sound system kicking, but the wireless mikes cut out a lot.

Check out www.conferencechannel.org to see videos from WiBo.

Whiteboard Sessions Tomorrow

David Robinson and I are heading to the Whiteboard Sessions in Reston, VA tomorrow.  It's a one day deal with 8 influential Christian leaders who will each have 30 minutes to speak on 1 topic.  I follow 4 of the speaker's blogs but I'm excited to hear from all of them.  Here's the line up:

John Burke, Ed Stetzer, Mark Dever, Darrin Patrick, Vince Antonucci (he's been to CCC), Mark Batterson, Tim Stevens, & Perry Noble.

You can read their bios on the Whiteboard Bio page.

I probably won't blog while I'm there (I hear there's no WiFi) but I'll Twitter as much as I can.  Twitter has been really flaky recently so we'll see how that goes. 

I'm leaving Thursday morning so it will probably take me 5 hours to drive the 68 miles to Reston because 95 & 495 transform into parking lots during morning rush hour. Seriously, I hope I can do it in 2 hours or less.

Kingdom-minded Church Leaders Part 2 of 2

In a Part 1 of this posting topic I talked about how much I am inspired when I hear of, or see church leaders acting with a kingdom mindset.  In this post I want to give some examples of things that I believe kingdom-minded church leaders do when acting on their belief that all churches that believe "Jesus is the Christ" (regardless of different specific beliefs) are part of one body, and should work together to accomplish God's mission for the world. 

Kingdom-minded church leaders:

1. Think about how to reach the lost people in their town, city, state, country and maybe the world and don't just think about how to grow their church.
2. They love working with leaders from other denominations and movements. One of my pet peeves is when church leaders act as if their denomination or movement is all there is, or maybe the best there is.
3. They love to network with other church leaders in their communities.
4. They think about decades from now, not just years from now.
5. They try to stop gossip about other churches and leaders.
6. They don't believe gossip about other churches and leaders unless they confirmed it.
7. They support other churches with prayer, money, volunteers & resources.
8. They send people from their church (staff & volunteers) to plant other churches

Now, if somebody does most of that they think kingdom-minded for the most part.  But, the people who think kingdom-minded the most are the people that do those last 2 things, for churches that aren't a part of their movement, network or denomination.  That's huge, because now they can't really count them or control what they believe and how they "do church".  Many times the church or church plant they support won't be giving back to the church or denomination/movement that helped them either.  That means they're giving and getting nothing in return.  We need a lot more of that.

Side note - The 2 I need to work on the most are #5 & #6.  I have promised myself that I'll do #7 & #8 if I'm ever in a position to do so, and I'll do it for churches outside the network or denomination I'm in.  I fully recognize it's much harder to do than say, and I can't wait for the opportunity to fulfill my promise.

Kingdom-minded Church Leaders Part 1 of 2

One thing that really inspires me is when I see or hear about a church leader thinking with a kingdom mindset.  By that I mean, they look at the Church (universal) as one body, fully understanding that different churches, denominations and movements believe different things but also knowing that if they believe "Jesus is the Christ" then we're all on the same team. 

But, it's one thing to believe it, and a completely different thing to act on that belief.  Jay Hardwick blogged his notes from the Exponential Conference last month and in this post he quoted Randy Pope as saying:

"When you think Kingdom, you think 'What's the best way to reach our city,' not 'What do we need to do to make our church look better."

That's what I'm talking about.  I love that thinking because I believe it's so true.  Particularly because the opposite means churches will never work together and I believe we can do far more together than we could ever do alone.  In a previous post I talked about the fact that my BIG prayer is that Baltimore would be known for strong, healthy churches.  Not to make certain churches, leaders, or even Baltimore famous but to make God famous.  I think Baltimore needs more kingdom-minded church leaders.  In another post I'll talk about the things I believe kingdom-minded church leaders do in order to act on their beliefs.