Random Thoughts on a Tuesday Morning

• Some of you think Brad Lomenick is a savvy, urban, missional businessman, but the duck is out of the bag.
• Bethany Hoang, who is Director of the IJM Institute, author for Catalyst, and good friend is now blogging.
• Quote from 4-Hour Work Week: Success is proportionate to the number of awkward conversations you're willing to have.
• Two things happened in the Catalyst office yesterday that will leave an indelible mark on the ministry world in 2009. I almost cried from happiness.
• Church planting is easy (when you're planting in a geographic area that's spiritually fertile).
• Church planting is hard (when you're planting in uncultivated spiritual soil. And at that point, your primary work is not planting a church; it's cultivating people's hearts).
• If any of you are reading this from Seattle, would you e-mail me at ben.arment@catalystspace.com?
• 12Stone Church has got to be one of the most creative-but-unknown churches in America. I'm meeting more and more artists who attend there in my Catalyst circles.

Comments

[Gary]

Love you dude, but I could not disagree with you anymore. Church planting is NEVER easy, no matter where you are. I know people would say the SE is fertile ground and is easy but I know guys shutting down here just as much as out west and up north.

Ministry, no matter what you are doing isn't easy. Anytime a guy steps out on faith to start something from nothing, there is nothing easy about that and to say any different is a slap in the face of everyone who has followed God with nothing but faith and a promise that He won't leave them.

[Ben Arment]

I firmly believe that spiritual fertility makes or breaks a church plant. I'm not saying it's ever easy - part of my statement was for dramatic effect. But I think "easier" is appropriate.

In VA, I saw the issue of an area's spiritual receptivity come up time and time again from my work in assessing planters.

Spiritual fertility can differ within even 5 miles though, so the SE wasn't even in my thinking here.

Just as you told me that Suwanee is a harder area to plant in than some other parts of GA - I was making the same point here.

[Gary]

Point taken. Your next post explained better and I have some thoughts on that so I will jump over there to post :)

[Jim]

This book "The 4 hour Work Week" has me thinking - just from your quotes - I need to pick it up today.