Promise and Deliver—Later

Because we had over triple our projections when we opened our newest campus, we were and still are behind the curve on many things:

• We don’t have nearly enough groups.
• We’re recruiting volunteers and releasing leaders on the fly.
• We’re training newly hired staff.
• We’re recruiting more staff.
• We’re putting finishing touches on the building (including solving parking challenges).
• We’re not close to having the programming in place.

In short, we’re building the airplane while it’s in the air. That’s okay. People understand and actually like it—if we lead well.

Though we don’t have everything the way we want it, we can make promises.

• We’ll be adding parking in the next few months so you won’t have to walk a quarter a mile! Thanks for being a great church and making it work!
• We’ll be adding a Saturday night service one day so you don’t have to sit in the overflow! Thanks for understanding and still bringing your friends!
• We’ll be starting our youth ministry in two months! It’s going to be amazing!
• We’re looking for a junior high pastor right now! Pray God brings us the right one.
• So many of you are new! We thank God you are here. Within the next month, we’ll have some meetings just to get to know you.

You don’t have to have it all today. Make promises for the future—then deliver.

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Hold Off On Organizing

When any ministry is starting or suddenly experiences growth, most people want to organize it and immediately put systems in place. While over time you’ll be wise to do both; in the beginning, I prefer to enjoy the chaos.

As a leader, you can maximize the chaos and use it to your advantage. Since it is more than you planned for, it’s not a bad idea to tell people with excitement, “Wow! God grossly exceeded our expectations!”

Instead of apologizing that the parking is tight, the classes are full, or that people are standing in the aisles, it’s great to enthusiastically say, “Thank God for what he is doing!”

Instead of trying to figure out how to handle the growth, work with it. For example, on our newest campus, we opened the doors with two services. One the first week, we made an audible to add two more, totaling four.

Do you think it was chaotic going from two to four services in one week? Absolutely. It was wonderfully chaotic. Everything wasn’t perfect. But no one was expecting perfection.

Somehow it simply felt like a “blessed mess.”

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The Blessed Mess

Occasionally, God will give some ministries extraordinary growth.

• It could be that your youth group doubles in a month.
• Maybe you open a new building only to be out of room within one year.
• Or you start a single adult ministry that had three times the people you expected.

We had this happen recently at the launch of a new campus. With a core group of 300, we cautiously hoped to open up with 700. After a month, it is stabilizing at over 2000 people. (Praise God for drawing the people!)

With a staff of only five people devoted to this campus, it is understandably overwhelming. Some immediately said, “We have to try to organize this group!” While I understand and agree to a point, there are times when chaotic ministry is better than organized ministry.

This week I’ll share a few of my ideas on what I call “The Blessed Mess.”

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India: Technology in a Thatch Hut

During our recent travels, we spent some time in India learning more about the cultural landscape and the great work some ministries are doing there. While we were visiting different areas, I took this picture. Located in a poor village, this thatch hut has no running water or sewer, yet it does have satellite TV.

The government has created some initiatives that help make televisions more widely available, but the contrast is still surprising. It makes me wonder how having access to information might change poverty over the course of generations.

It also got me thinking…someone living in these conditions could be exposed to the Gospel while watching their satellite television. From a thatch hut in India, the poorest of the poor could hear a message of hope from somewhere across the globe.

If that’s possible, then what could that mean for the future possibility of using technology to share Christ with the world? This experience only increases my resolve to use these tools to reach the world, whether it’s satellite TV in a thatch hut in India or a mobile phone in the middle of Africa.

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Joel A’Bell - Part 4

LifeChurch.tv was very honored to host Joel A’Bell and his mates from ‘down under’ last week. This is the last of a four-part video interview:

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Joel A-Bell - 2

“Heart for the House” is a phrase that is common at Hillsong. It speaks of the loyalty, honor and single-mindedness that is felt for the local church. In this segment, I asked Joel to explain how they develop a “heart for the house.”

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Guest: Vince Antonucci

Today our guest blogger is Vince Antonucci, author of “Guerrilla Lovers: How to Change the World with Revolutionary Compassion” and a great example of someone who is willing to do things that aren’t being done, to reach those who aren’t being reached.  Vince is currently starting a church on the Vegas Strip, but I asked him to tell us a story from his book of when he started a church service in a bar.  Here’s Vince:

When we started the service in the bar, one of our people, Samantha, couldn’t help but notice the pregnant bartender. It turns out that she was an ex-stripper.  Apparently, there’s not much call for pregnant strippers, so she had to find a new job, which is why she started bartending at this pub.  But feeling like a guerrilla lover, not only couldn’t Samantha help but notice her, she also couldn’t help but start talking to her each week, and she couldn’t help but begin praying about how she could ambush this lady with God’s love. The answer God gave her was… a party.

She began sharing her idea with some of the other Forefront women and everyone quickly jumped on board. They had to act fast, because the bartender was only a few weeks away from her due date.  So Samantha and a few other ladies from our church went shopping and bought a boat load of baby-shower presents. Samantha called the bar manager and asked her to call the pregnant bartender in an hour early pretending it was really busy and they “needed extra help.” The manager complied and the bartender came rushing in … to a nearly empty bar, except for five women and a table full of presents and food, and a huge, “Surprise!!!”

She stopped in her tracks and just stared, not quite able to comprehend what was happening. When she finally got it she was even more stunned. She couldn’t understand why people she didn’t know would throw her a party. And not only were these people virtually strangers, they were Christians. Aren’t Christians against strippers, against bartenders, against women who get pregnant outside of marriage, and against parties? She was confused, and grateful, and pretty much speechless. Samantha says, “I think she had that feeling you get when you don’t know God or that He loves you, but then you discover for the first time that maybe he does. I think she felt that.”

And, by the way, that’s a great example of a guerrilla lover ambush, and I’m convinced that it’s the way we can have a real impact on people and the world.

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Letting Go of Old Assumptions

The world is changing faster every day. Too many Christian leaders are working off old assumptions rather than new revelations.

When we assume that our way of doing ministry is best:

• We stop learning from others.
• We rarely try something new.
• We quickly see faults in new ideas rather than seeing opportunities.

To reach people no one is reaching, we have to do things no one is doing.

If you think the way everyone else is thinking, you’ll do what everyone is doing.

It is time to let go of old assumptions about how to reach people.

What assumptions about church and ministry are you shedding?

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