Recently, a friend of mine gave me a book by Frank Viola. It has helped me understand the New Testament by putting everything in context and the order it happened.

While I was reading I had a prayer. “Lord I want to give everything I have to helping church planters. But I will only do it if you will keep them from failure.”

Then I read this verse about Paul and his church planting journey. He had it ruff. Not every church plant made it. Several of them made huge mistakes. I may have to change my prayer. Why is it so hard to give your life for something. Especial when everything you worked so hard for could fall apart.

This week we are at New Life Church in Little Rock, Arkansas for another ARC Basic Training.  Our first night, was spent in Kidslife.  WoW!   There were two  AmAzInG things to point out. The first is how much energy those kids have.   I don’t remember having that much energy when I was a kid.  Second, kids ministry really doesn’t have to be expensive.  This guy in the sun glasses had them entertain by running around with a stick horse.  They played some fun games too.

Check out the video of the TP WAR!

(uploaded from a cracked Android)

Top 5 quotes from this video:

5. You guys suckered me into church planting.

4. Maybe we made a mistake. Lord how could you do this.

3. Everyone will have a low moment. Always pray never give up!

2. How could I quit pastoring to plant a church?

1. Naivete is the greatest spiritual gift for church planting.

A more serious post coming soon.  Just thought this was entertaining.

1.  Let people work in their strengths.

2.  Do your 5%.

3.  Communicate.

Most of these I have learn from him or those he has mentored.

My favorite thing to hear a church planter say, “The team is awesome.”

Usually this means they will be successful.  Having a great team is vital to launching a church.

Which team had you rather be on?

A. Thinks your awesome and sees great potiential in you.

or

B. Sees every mistake and always talking behind your back.

Teams always have weaknesses.  Some guys dwell on the negatives.  It isn’t fun to listen too.  We all have areas to grow, but the successful guys talk about the awesome the people around them.

Today Tony Ashmore pastor of Church at Mirror Lake told me about a lady that came to C@ML.

She walked in and he asked, “How did you hear about us?” She responded, “From you mail piece.”

“From the one we sent out for Christmas?”

“No, from when you launched your church.”

To put things in perspective, C@ML launched 6 yr ago. That’s right The bulk mail out letter was on her refrigerator for 6 years.

Moral of the story: don’t judge success by the first day.

You make notice a few changes around planterguy.com.  I have a new blog design!

I want to thank my roomate Jason for the new design.  He did an awesome job!

We are still working out some kinks. (I forgot to back everything up before the transfer so some stuff is missing)  We are working to get everything running smoothly.

In the mean time check out this video I just found:

Lotza Money – Music Video from River Valley Church on Vimeo.

The best part is at 2:00  2nd best is right at the end.

ENJOY!

P.S. Comment are turned off until I can stop all the spam.  Sorry.

So Guy has graciously offered to help me gather some information through his blog via a survey I have developed. It takes about 2 minutes to complete but has already offered some interesting findings. Some quick background… I recently left a church staff position after 9 years. I had some great experiences but I also found that I was constantly fighting a battle between the “work of the ministry” and the work that helps ministry continue.

So now I’m trying to find out if my experience matches up with others in ministry. I’m checking in to see what types of work ministries are doing that are incredibly important but not ministry or people focused. If all goes well I will be sharing the results with Guy and letting everyone in on what others in the church are up to when it comes to the work of the ministry. Well, actually the work that helps ministry continue.

Thanks for taking a couple of minutes to help out!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FHXDDW2

During the “Prime Time” services, he looks for girls has never met.  He walks up and asks the question, “You want to marry me?”

So far he has had a lot of “NO’s” a few “MAYBE’s” and 3 Yes’s.  You may be surprised he forgot to stop after the first YES. I’m not…

Isn’t this post a great way to celebrate National Marriage Week.

Marriage Facts:

Married folks live longer, enjoy better health, greater personal happiness, more well adjusted children, and greater financial stability. (Fox News quoting research references from NationalmarriageweekUSA.org)

Only 28% of churches offer even 1 marriage course a year.  <– this is surprising