Aim Small, Miss Small

There are some movies you can watch over and over again and still be entertained. Movies like Forrest Gump, Rocky, or The Blind Side never get old. Yet one of my favorites is "The Patriot" with Mel Gibson. I love that movie! It was that movie that spawned something in my spirit about our giving strategies for our church. Do you remember the part where Colonel Benjamin Martin was rushing through the woods with his two young sons, in an attempt to ambush the British and rescue his oldest son? He handed his young boys a rifle and said, "Boys, Aim small, miss small." What did he mean? He meant if they aimed at the man and missed, they missed the man; but if they aimed at a button on their jackets, they could miss the button but still hit the man. I think we need to adopt this same principle to our churches in terms of giving. Let me share just a couple of things the Lord slammed me with a few weeks ago.

• Our congregations are made up of different entities (young singles, young parents, older people, college students, educators, etc.)

• Each entity is passionate about specific things. For example, young parents are passionate about their children; educators are passionate about their careers, young singles are passionate about finding their soul mate, and so on.

There is huge importance in knowing the different entities that make up your congregation; and even more important is to know their passions...because their passion equals what they consider to be relevant. How does all of this tie into giving?

People give to what is relevant; they give to the things they are passionate about. Threatening the church to give or suffer dire financial consequences or teaching them to treat God like a lottery ticket (give and He'll give you more than you can stand) is tiring and distasteful. While giving should be an act of worship, we still must be strategic in funding the work of the Kingdom. Rewind with me to "The Patriot" again. The brave Colonel said, "Aim Small, Miss Small." I think this needs to happen in our churches. Here's how.

• Discover the Different Buttons: Define the different entities in your church and learn their passions (remember, whatever they are passionate about is what they consider relevant).

• Aim Small to Miss Small: Build a quarterly giving schedule "aiming" at one (not all) entity and tie it to giving.

Let me give you a quick example of our giving schedule for this upcoming Sunday. Our target is "Parents." We understand parents are passionate about their children, so my Children's Pastor will lead giving. She will probably have three or four cute kids on the platform. They will either recite a Bible verse, sing a song, or do something cute. Afterwards, my children's pastor will remind the church their generosity does much more than pay the light bill; their giving enables us to train up their children in the Word of God. Now the singles will think that's cute, but every parent in the building will see it as AWESOME and RELEVANT because they are PASSIONATE about their children. People give to passion.

When we aim towards those who are community minded, we'll have one of our servolution leaders to lead giving. Same thing. Tell the story, tie it to giving, and every community-minded person hears something that is relevant and they give out of their passion. Creating this kind of schedule enables you to build your giving around, not only entities, but even life issues that may occur in your community. The options are endless!

Don't get me wrong, teaching on tithing and offerings are needed. We need to shotgun the Biblical commandments about giving; but we should be wise to aim small to miss small. We should speak relevant language to our people, so they understand that giving accomplishes the eternal things that they themselves are passionate about.

Hit me on twitter for coaching in this area. @chadhunt

www.cavelandchurch.com

An Accidental Church Plant

I want to share my story with you about my accidental church plant. Several years ago I developed and published a recovery program called "Addiction Deliverance Outreach." My book and workbook was very successful on the local level, and eventually crept into different cities and states over the years. One place it landed was Dallas Texas. In Dallas, there was a recovery ministry called "Free-Man Recovery." This ministry had three recovery homes for men, and they were pretty successful.

After using my material, they contacted me and asked me if I could send them some of my preaching DVD's...and I did. A few weeks later, they called and informed me that over thirty people were showing up every Friday evening to watch the preaching videos. So I said, "Heck, let's plant a church!" And we did...sort of. We rented a building, came up with a name, and set a launch date with a launch team of about thirty people. I spent the next five months or so flying to Dallas Texas every other Thursday, preaching Friday night, and flying back to Kentucky on Saturday to preach at my church on Sunday. On the off weekends, they would watch me via video. Our attendance got up to around 115 on the weekends I would be there and around 70-80 when they used my video. In 2009, we installed a flesh and blood pastor. Today they remain a recovery church, sharing Jesus with men and women who struggle with substance abuse.

In the beginning, my vision was, to begin as a total recovery church, but to morph into a church with a recovery ministry. However, it never worked out. That's not totally a bad thing (people still found Jesus) but I missed the blessing of seeing something much bigger because of my inexperienced, stupid decisions.

Now that I look back, here's the things I really screwed up on.

• I didn't take the time to read the right books or talk to the right people.
• I thought that preaching alone was enough to create a successful church.
• I allowed the "rock star" mentality to seep in, which created foolish pride.
• I put the wrong campus pastors in place and I was never clear enough on the vision.
• I didn't cast vision well to my church in KY, which caused jealousy and people worried that I was going to move to Dallas.
• Dallas was just too far to be a successful video venue (at least for us).

If you're a new planter, be sure you don't do any of these things. Since then, I have hooked up with successful planters like Charles Hill, David Putman, Michael Robinson, Artie Davis, and Dave Anderson, among others. These guys have help me get my arms around what church planting should look like. Looking back, I am awestruck by the mercy of God; despite my foolish mistakes, people still found Jesus and was baptized. But I still wonder, "What could've been?" had I taken the time to plan well.

Today our church is in partnership with www.plantingthegospel.com and I serve as a coach with The Sticks Network. And one thing I always tell my guys is, "Church planting should never be accidental...but always intentional and directed by the Holy Spirit."

Three Targets of Division

Over the years I have learned that one of the most vulnerable places for the enemy to hit the church is the staff. Satan knows that if dissension exists among the very group that leads, plans, and ministers to people, the vision becomes blurred and the mission begins to drift far from what God called the church to do.

As I was reading the Bible, the Holy Spirit spoke something to me from the words of Jesus. In Matthew's gospel, chapter eleven, the Pharisees were doing what they do best, trying to catch Jesus in some sort of doctrinal error. In this particular instance, they accuse Jesus of casting out demons by the power of Satan (what idiots!) Here, Jesus says something that I believe speaks, not only to the Pharisees, but also to each of us and especially those of us who serve on church staff.

Jesus says, "Knowing their thoughts, He said to them, 'Every kingdom divided against itself is laid to waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand." Mt. 12:25

Now I have read this a thousand times, but something stood out to me that I had never seen before. Jesus specifically mentions three places that division can destroy; the kingdom, the city, and the home. WOW.

How does this apply to church staff? Well, I'm glad you asked. I believe when Satan attempts to infiltrate a church staff with division, he targets the three places of church ministry. They are, THE KINGDOM, THE CITY, & THE HOME.

• THE KINGDOM: The Kingdom is WHY WE DO CHURCH. It's not uncommon for Satan to sow seeds of division as to "why" we do church. Usually this will surface by someone on staff arguing about (but not limited to) the music being the wrong style, the preaching is too edgy, or the ministry programs are attracting "messy people." You must always protect the work of the Kingdom by asking the simple question, "Is what we're doing bringing people to Jesus and making disciples?" If the answer is YES, then keep doing what you're doing! Usually Satan uses staff who push back when asked to increase their commitment level, or they're overcome with jealousy due to being overlooked; or can't stand the constant push to step outside of their comfort zone. If you have staff like this, reach out to them, love them, and help them catch the vision of God's kingdom. If they don't or won't...replace them.

• THE CITY: The city is WHERE WE DO CHURCH. If a church loses sight of WHERE she is supposed to be Jesus, people suffer. I believe every God-planted church was intentionally placed there for the community or city which surrounds her. Often Satan will plant divisive thoughts in the minds of influential staff members, in an attempt to get the church to lose focus of her community. These thoughts will become verbalized with lines like, "We can't make a difference" or "Our community can never change" or "Let the larger churches take care of those needs." God established the church to be Jesus to cities and communities; your church is where it's at because there are people there whom God has called your church to reach. People counting on your church...and they don't even know it...but Satan does. Don't allow division to trick you into abandoning your first mission field...your city or community.

• THE HOME: The home is THE PULSE OF THE CHURCH. I don't care how great your lead pastor is, how innovative your teams are, or how effective your brainstorming sessions can be...if it's not right at home, it always bleeds over. Every home has its struggles, but when division takes over, we tend to become desensitized to the heartbeat of the church; the pain and resentment eventually causes staff members to go through the motions just to keep getting a paycheck; they can no longer hear the heartbeat of Jesus and His ministry. Protecting the unity of your marriage and family plays a HUGE part in the unity of your church. When unity exists among your spouse and family, it creates a synergy that can become contagious among those whom you work with. Unity is fluid; it flows; and the beginning of the stream begins at the dinner table.

So, if you are on staff at a church and feel like there's division creeping in...ask yourself which of these areas are missing unity and prayerfully fix it before things start falling apart.