If I’m going to watch a movie, it’s got to have a hero in it. And not a superhero with a cape. I like the guy who is just going along minding his business when circumstances thrust him into some defining role. Jack Bauer, Jason Bourne, . . . whatever.  Just make them a regular guy, understate their training and then throw some kind of life-defining moment at them. Give me two hours and a tub of popcorn with that and I’m good to go.

In my cinematic view of life the best leader is the unexpected hero, the one who clumsily falls into the role but somehow saves the planet from annihilation. But for a Christian man, however, there are two fundamental problems with this “man for the moment” und…

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(See the previous posts, Part 1 - Study the Past and Part 2 - Study Mistakes)

Guess what I know about you? You think that what you’re involved in is the best thing God is doing right now. You think you’ve got something desperately needed in the church. Of course you do. Why else would you give, serve, sacrifice for it?! The guys over in the PCA, EV Free, SBC and Acts 29 all think the same thing. Me too. We all think we’ve figured it out.  It’s a wonderful thing about how God organizes the body of Christ. We’re all part of the best thing around.

Faith for church planting assumes we believe God is at work in what we’re doing. I’m not just talking about gospel truth either, but the creation…

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(See the previous post, Planting Churches That Last  (Part 1) - Study the Past )

As a teenager, my buddy fancied himself a hotshot skateboarder. Trying to do an ollie (a jump and board flip in midair) he landed badly and snapped the bone in his arm. The real ache was 6 weeks of summer spent in a cast. Finally he got the cast off and … well, he immediately went back to the same spot and tried the same thing … and broke his arm. Same move, same bone, same result.

He’s an adult now and he’s vowed to never stand on anything that has wheels. He also has this weird place on his arm where it still feels broken when you touch it. Moral of the story is the old adage: “Those who fail to learn the …

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The best car I ever owned was a ’72 Chrysler Valiant. My wife, Kimm, called it the “Wonder V,” as in, “I wonder why you think I want to ride in that.” But it was a tank on tires—so solidly built, I used it as a backstop for pitching practice. A baseball into the side of my present car would total it. It was a sad day when the “Wonder V” gave up the ghost. When something is solid, well-built, and passes the test of time, we need to value it.

That’s the way we need to understand church planting strategies. In a world where “new” gets the buzz, we need to value that which has proven itself over time. I’m part of a family of churches that has been planting churches for over three decades, but …

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