History in the Making

It was like being at the Oprah Show

Today, we were having a "presidential lunch" catered by the fine dining establishment of Moe's Mexican, when VP Mark Cole stood up to announce that all of us deserved ice cream for the great week our company just had. It was like being an audience member on the Oprah show: "And there's an ice cream truck PARKED RIGHT OUTSIDE THE FRONT DOOR!!!" Ahhhh!!!! Screams of delight by everyone. We rushed outside to enjoy "choco tacos," ice cream sandwiches, and "big dippers." It was a delightful afternoon. (Or something like that. =)

What Cultivated Soil Looks Like

I'm continuing the discussion about struggling church planters:: This is not how to cultivate soil... nor am I saying we should only plant churches in cultivated places. Far from it. But here are a few possibilities of what cultivated soil looks like::

• A church planter goes back to his hometown where he's built relationships for years. He knows where the pockets of spiritual receptivity are located.

• There's a core group waiting and praying for a church planter. They've assembled themselves together.

• There's a strong spiritual heritage from yeeeears ago. Just look at old, traditional church buildings that are now just a shell of their former glory. Maybe there's a Christian college nearby. Maybe a whole generation stopped going to church, but they've got this spiritual heritage in the recesses of their hearts, waiting for a new wineskin to come along.

• The area has been cultivated by itinerant evangelists for years. Maybe a youth evangelist sees unnatural activity in one particular town and decides to plant a church there.

• A youth pastor decides to plant a church in the same town as his mother church. All of the teenagers who loved him and grew up with him are eager to join the new endeavor.

• Several old ladies pray for a community for years. They ask God over and over to bring someone to start a church in their town.

• A church planter "works the soil" for a few years, but ultimately decides to call it quits. Now there's a small community of believers left behind who want to continue the work. They're primed and ready for a leader with fresh vision.

I can give examples for each one of these scenarios. Can you identify cultivated soil in any of the famous church planting stories you know? There are more possibilities... but hopefully you get the idea. Later, I'll post about how to cultivate soil if you're on tough ground and when to walk away, if ever.

Weekend Warrior

Okay, I'm -what- 10 years late, but I finally dove into the world of ebay over the weekend, and I think I'm addicted. The competitive spirit within me, added to the very small pot of discretionary spending money Ainsley allotted me, made it nothing less than exhilerating. I lost all my auctions, but it was a learning experience. I'm trying to find an affordable old 16mm film camera, which seems to be rather rare. Still, I'm like an e-cougar now... on the prowl. rrowwlll....

Sunday at 12Stone

Went to 12Stone Church this morning to see my two Catalyst peeps, Dustin and Sabrina, tear it up on-stage musically. Talk about an incredible environment... 12Stone is like a big tree fort with a Starbucks! Seriously, their nearly in-the-round auditorium is officially my fave. Dylan was not feeling the 1-year olds class though, so we landed in the video overflow room, which was as much fun as watching The Hour of Power in my living room, sans pjs.

Two Posts to Go on 'Struggling Planters'

It's hard to write a 200-word blog post without laying out a comprehensive argument. So while I've enjoyed the debate about struggling church planters in my comments section, it's clear to me that church planters can be like Vietnam Vets. All it takes is one sound effect (or one viewpoint in this case =) to send them into a rage. I thought I'd respond to some of the main criticisms:

"If your church is not growing quickly, then you're not called. Get off the playing field."
I'm starting with the assumption that if you're planting a church, you're called by God. To withhold my compassion for struggling church planters because of calling would be like pulling my bleeding 4-year old out from under the car and saying, "Well, you shouldn't have been in the driveway."

"Successful evangelism doesn't depend on you, you jerk-weed; it's all God."
I'm unashamedly not a Calvinist, so you might try reading the Resurgence or Piper's blog instead of pulling your hair out over mine. What's interesting to me is the level of pride and even anger that so often accompanies these arguments.

"Planting in the Bible Belt is NOT easier than other places!"
Wha?? Who was arguing that? Again, my main point was this - church planters often struggle because they're trying to start a church in a community that is not spiritually prepared for one. It's not that they shouldn't be there; it's that they should understand what their community needs first. It'll help them avoid depression and discouragement.

"Church Planters fail for a whole number of reasons."
Yes, but I haven't heard this reason before, which is why I was blogging it.

"I'll inflict bodily harm on you."
What is this... a chat-room at the Georgia Department of Corrections website? =)

I've got a few more posts in this series to go, so I'm hoping there's a church planter or two out there benefitting from it. I'll try to hit on these topics: 1. When to walk away from a plant, and 2. What a spiritually fertile community looks like.

Link-o-licious

• Most of us are really good at staying busy with unimportant things. The allure of the unimportant is so strong that we'll actually invent frivolous activity for ourselves to avoid what's truly important. - The 4-Hour Work Week
•  Tucker Hibbs interviewed me about "reproducing yourself" on the Little Big Church podcast the other day.
• Enjoying being the featured blog of the week at Swerve. Nice.
• The Whiteboard DVD is almost ready to ship! If you ordered one, it's coming at you soon...
• Got to hang out for lunch with Brandon McCormack yesterday. He's a young filmmaker prodigy who is tearing it up here in Duluth. Disney recently invited him to start pitching ideas for short films.
• Making lots of connections with people from Seattle... thanks to those of you who e-mailed me.
• Enjoyed a great lunch at Five Guys with the Catalyst team. Today is beach day, so we looked like scantily clad hobos at the lunch hour.
• Was invited by Scott McClellan to write some stuff for Collide. Yeehaw.

My Heart for Struggling Church Planters

For several years, I helped a church planting organization assess and review the work of new church planters. In the course of meeting with them and their wives, I began to see a pattern emerge for most of them...

The church planter comes up with a great vision that rivals Bill Hybels’ Acts 2 church or Rick Warren’s baseball diamond. He’s got a great website, flow charts, demographic studies and even a facility picked out for when he starts holding services. The church exists perfectly in his mind before he ever steps foot in the community.

Six months later, he’s still optimistic, but he’s taken a few hits from early set-backs. Some potential core group members dropped out; he didn’t get as much funding as he wanted; the worship leader he recruited got another job… out of state.

By sheer optimism, the planter pushes on. It gives him great joy to set a launch date that will most certainly deliver him into the land of milk and honey: a truly effective church. All he wants to do is start meeting weekly, and people will come. He’s sure of it. The vision is too great...

Your Office Needs One of These

Today is super early bird deadline day at Catalyst. The office is decorated with balloons and streamers. Everyone is dressed in yellow (I have no idea why =). But the best part is Jesse Phillips. He is donning a tuxedo and the persona of "Manuel" ~ an eager-to-please butler who brings us food all day long and looks after our needs. Jesse already has an amazing servant's heart. But it's 1:38 PM, and he just brought milk and cookies around to all the offices... so what does that tell you? You only wish you worked here. =)

Easy Church Planting

I have a righteously-indignant compassion for church planters who struggle year after year to get a church off the ground in spiritually infertile areas. I want to help them change their activity from "church starting" to "cultivating soil" to take the pressure off their performance and their families... at least until the soil becomes more fertile.

Look at the Apostle Paul. He didn't start churches on the first missionary journey. He cultivated the soil... and then came back to establish churches when the Gospel had taken root.

While whitewater rafting down the New River in West Virginia years ago, a tour guide pointed out the skeletal remains of a deer caught in the never-ending cycle of water pressure under some rocks. Apparently, the deer got caught in the undertow and was unable to break free from the pressure. The guide said he watched for months as the torrential gush slowly washed away the deer’s composition. That’s a gruesome picture, but I can’t think of a better metaphor to describe the struggle of so many church planters.

I'm using the phrase "easy church planting" not because it's ever easy, but because it doesn't have to be as hard as we think. A farmer doesn't plant seeds without first preparing the soil. Yet, we act like it's one big crap shoot whether a church will make it in a community or not. We turn it into Russian roulette.

If plants aren't coming up, put the seed bag down, and grab a hoe.

Jesus used an agricultural metaphor to describe Gospel-sowing because there are seasons to follow, there is a process to planting. A farmer would be a fool to drive a combine through a field 12 months out of the year.

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.

More on the Barrier of Comparison...

Another nugget from The 4-Hour Work Week... There's more competition to become mediocre than to become remarkable. Almost everyone is vying for the same spots to be average. Far fewer people actually go for the big dreams, which makes them easier to attain. For example, it's easier to raise $1,000,000 than $10,000 because more people are trying to raise $10,000.

Ed Stetzer's New Initiative

Not only do I love Ed Stetzer's new blog design, but there's been an obvious and intentional effort on his part lately to expose and support next generation church leaders. Just skim through his previous posts. I've always heard Ed address the SBC's problem of losing young leaders, but I don't think any of us expected him to actually try to resolve it. Ed is like Mel Gibson in the Patriot who is busy making furniture... but finally takes up his weapon to help the cause. Kudos Ed! I love how you're leading out. Just don't take your shirt off like Mel. =)

Catalyst Spirit Week Report

It's Spirit Week here at Catalyst, which requires a special dress code each day. Today is country day. As I'm writing this, Tim McGraw is crooning in the background about whippoorwills. Brad Lomenick is demonstrating various duck calls. And the Catalyst team is moseying around in Wrangler jeans and boots. It's a sight to behold.

Monday was athletic day, so everyone wore work-out attire and Will Ferrill-like head bands. We hit the parking lot in late afternoon for relay races and a rousing game of dodge ball. Fun.

The Barrier of Comparison

Reading The 4-Hour Work Week to see what all the fuss is about... Author Timothy Ferriss tells an interesting story about challenging some Princeton students to a competition: The first person to contact a seemingly impossible person to reach (Bill Clinton, JLo, JD Salinger, etc.) and ask them three questions would win a trip to anywhere in the world...

Out of a whole class of students, NONE of them accepted his challenge. Many thought the challenge was impossible, but the most common excuse was comparison. They thought the other students would certainly get there first. They didn't think there was any point in trying.

Such a great lesson on the barrier of comparison. How many times have we been stopped in our tracks because we thought someone else could write a better book than we can... or plant a better church... or do a better job than we can?

Can You Believe This Church Sign?

Was driving down the road this past weekend when I caught sight of this awful church sign. The Church is in some serious need of Togetherness.

Only half of you will actually read this part... but I'm totally kidding. This fake sign was created on Church Sign Generator, which I found on Blair's blog. Now go have some fun...

Innovation is Not Recognizable While It's Innovating

M. Night Shyamalan is the most misunderstood filmmaker on the planet. The critics are merciless, and everything after The Sixth Sense has been rejected almost wholesale by the viewing public. He can barely get a film green-lit by the studios anymore... his latest movie not excluded. But his artistic imprint is so clearly unmistakable and so unique that he will eventually be a legend in film-making. He's innovating something extraordinary, but it's way too early to tell what it is. Those who agree have something to look forward to.

Blackmail

The director of craziness at Catalyst, Brad Lomenick, in purple polyester.

Weekend Braves Game

Ainsley's best friend from high school, Kelly, lives here in Atlanta with her family ~ husband Ben, 6 year old son Braden, and 4 year old daughter Ainsley (and yes, the names can be confusing =). We boys hit a Braves game on Sunday afternoon. Wyatt wouldn't have made it past the second inning if it weren't for the cotton candy, potato chips, and sno-cones. Hey, I drew the line at those big foam fingers.

You Know Your Kids Don't See You Much When...

Me:      "What movie did you see with your mom today, Wyatt?
Wyatt:  "Doogle"
Me:      "Google?" (jokingly)
Wyatt:  "Noooo... Dooooogle!"
Me:      "I'm just kidding Wyatt."
Wyatt:  "Hey Mom, that guy just said 'Google'"

Spirit Week at Catalyst

Every day this week is a special dress-up day here at Catalyst. Today is athletic wear. I'm going hybrid with jeans + my Pumas + a wristband. But some of the folks have taken it street style with full-on work-out gear. This is all in the spirit of Deadline Week, when thousands of registrations will come through though the door in effort to get the best deal on Catalyst. And yes, walking into Chad Johnson's office is like stepping into a Pottery Barn showroom.