SEND Baltimore

This is very interesting.  The North American Mission Board has decided to turn the focus on several urban environments throughout the USA because of the lack of churches in those areas.  Further, it is calling these cities 'SEND' cities, and has a plan to put 15,000 church planters in these cities over the next 10 years.  My brother is planning to be one of them in Baltimore and it is a city close to my heart as i grew up near there.   Below are some notes from a session telling about the spiritual lostness of Baltimore, and the plan to 'penetrate lostness' in this city.

I'm not serving at an SBC church, however, I am excited to see the NAMB bringing people and resources in the population centers that are un/de churched.  Jonathan Falwell was the presenter....

"The uttermost parts of the earth will never be found inside the walls of our church"

Churches per person Stats:

• Mississippi - 1 person for every 1,351 people
• NYC - 1 person for every 59,000+ people
• New Jersey - 1 person for every 76,000+ people
• Canada - 1 person for every 121,000+ people

Strategies in Baltimore are going to need to be different.

• 1 out of 2 people in Maryland live in Baltimore
• 2/3 African American, 1/3 Anglo
• 280 neighborhoods in Baltimore
• 8% of the 6 million in the Baltimore-Washington Area have a relationship with Christ

In the last year, 880 SBC churches closed their doors in this country.

"The only thing that can change the world, is the Gospel of Jesus Christ proclaimed through the local church."

"We are not called to build a big church, we are called to build a Kingdom."

SEND Geoff Surratt

Geoff is a multisite guru that has been a part of Seacoast Church, Saddleback and has written extensively on the topic.  Below are some thoughts from SEND 2013.

Four crucial questions to ask before going MultiSite:

1) How healthy is your church?

•   Is it growing?
•  Are people finding their way back to God? (asking if people found Christ at 101)
• Are new disciples being made? (S.P.R.E.A.D.) Activity based tracking (surveys)

      2) What is the driving reason for going multisite?

• Three Drivers - Rapid Growth, Underserved Community, Visionary leader 

3) Are key leaders onboard?

• Multisite will NOT thrive as an aside to the church
• Jesus didn't get everyone on board, you can't get everyone on board 
• People don't know what they don't know (Sears- garage door openers, Apple iPod) 

4)  What Should you reproduce?

• What do you value?
• What are you uniquely good at?
• Of the things you are good at, what is reproducible?
• What do you do that you shouldn't reproduce?

Stu Hodges SEND (MultiSite)

Stu Hodges: is the Pastor of Water's Edge Church and is very passionate about the MultiSite Church.

Stu believes it is the most effective and efficient means of moving the church forward beyond anything we have discovered.

The Case For MultiSite:

• About 5000 current, 1650 mega churches
• 6million people attend multisite church
• 75 of 100 largest churches in North America are Multi Site
• 62 of 100 fastest growing churches are multisite
• Average church goes multi site at 850
• 360 is the average multi site campus attendance
• 1 in 3 multi sites are result of merger
• 1 in 10 have internet campus
• Only half utilize video
• About 15% of multi site churches have 4 or more geographic locations
• Majority are within 30 minute drive
• Multisite campuses have a 90% success rate!!
• Campuses are reporting more growth, baptisms, salvations and volunteers
• Multisite campuses usually becomes self sustaining financial 1-3 years
• Multi-site is the new normal

Practical Thoughts:

Utilizes the platform from LifeChurch.tv for their online campus.  Its completely free!

Multi-Site Changes everything!!  If it doesn't, your not doing it correctly!

• Only 10% of multi-site churches fail, one main reason they fail, is because sending campus doesn't change and adjust to include the receiving campus.

Multisite Is Not For Everyone:

1) Are you System and Process Oriented?

2) Is your strategy simple and reproducible?

Craig Groshel "What we do at one, we do at all, if we can't, we kill it"

3) Are you willing to release control?

4) Is momentum on your side?  -- If your not growing, don't do it.

5) Can you make the financial investment?

Waters Edge opens a campus with 4 staff:  (pastor, worship, kids, volunteers)

6) Are you raising up leaders?

7) How strong is your brand? -- What are the things that you HAVE to reproduce?

The Campus Pastor is the Key:

These are the leaders who own the vision of the church.  They are absolutely essential!

Multisite takes men and women and increases their leadership capacity.

Video Teaching Works:

Most people don't care....in Stu's experience, more people have responded via video then even when its live!!

Multisite is Financially Efficient:

Many of our costs can be a shared cost!

Multisite = Growth

Numerically, financially, makes it easier to invite people, leadership, reproduces leaders, spiritual growth (its not about me mentality)

SEND North America Opening Session

Currently I have the opportunity to sit at the SEND North America conference which is put on by the Southern Baptist Convention.  While the group is unapologetically Southern Baptist, it is a group of men and women, focused on training and 'penetrating lostness' in 30 point cities across the country.  They are doing this by sending church planters from across the country and the globe to reach these influential, unreached, de-churched cities.  My brother Chris (www.chriscomstock.com) is one of those planters looking to plant a church in Baltimore in the Fall of 2015.  

Below are some notes from the Opening General Session:

--Your not sick in sin, your dead in sin....there is not opportunity for recovery.

--Christ set me free from my sin, not for my sin

--When you understand GRACE, you will forsake ANYTHING else...if you don't understand this, you don't get it!

DUSTIN WILLIS:

-- We are saved from our sins, but saved FOR a mission!  Jesus changes everything.

How do you get in on what God is doing?

1) Identify (Acts 17:26)
2) Invest (in sharing the Gospel) (1 Thes. 2:8)
3) Invite (John 13:35)
4) Increase (1 Corinthians 3:7)


DR. JACK GRAHAM:

--We are not here to relive history, but to make history

--Were not trying to get back to the good ol' days of the 1950's but we ought to get back to the 1st century

--It is imperative to unite as believers

--The mission is bigger then Prestonwood...and bigger than all of us together.

In defense of Multi-Site movement -- It doesn't matter what teacher is in the house, but that Jesus is in the house.

Gospel is bigger than you, your church, your community, your city, your state, your country....the Gospel is bigger than the WORLD & Generations.

Lessons From 'Greater' by Pastor Steven Furdick

I recently completed the book 'Greater' by Steven Furdick.  There were a lot of great principles and lessons that spoke into my life and as anyone reading this knows, my blog exists as a 'digital catalogue' of lessons that I have learned about leadership.  This makes it easier for me to review what I have learned when I take personal leadership retreats to evaluate personal growth.

Here are some great thoughts and lessons I picked up from this short, easy, yet effectively written read:

"The thing is, most believers aren't in imminent danger of ruining their lives.  They're facing a danger that's far greater:  wasting them." pg 5

"There is a price to pay for Christian complacency.  If you keep living on this level, your heart is going to shrivel.  It might already be shriveling.  Your dreams are going to die.  They may already be on life support.  Will you look up one day and be overwhelmed by the stack of regrets staring back at you?  The frustration that's simmering on the back burner right now might boil over one day, and you'll be bitter about the opportunities you missed.  Opportunities to be used by God, to touch lives, to get outside yourself and be a part of something greater.  I know it's not easy.  But don't tell me it's not possible.  Jesus Himself said it was." pg 7

"He's more interested in your full obedience than your full understanding."  pg 46

"In other words, a big dream without a small start is nothing but a daydream." pg 62

Referring to 2 Kings 3 -- "Only God can send the rain.  But He expects you to dig the ditches."pg 66

"We've established that the path to greater things is rarely the path of least resistance." pg 92

"Great opportunities later require immediate obedience now." pg 133

"When you have the highest power, you can take the lowest place." pg 138

"God isn't present only for my epic showdowns and life-altering crises.  He's also superintending my everyday struggles." pg 149

"Elisha doesn't pray that God will send down fire as Elijah did on Mount Carmel.  And he doesn't pray that God will send a larger army to their rescue.  He just prays that the servant will see what God already has in place." pg 168

Catalyst 2013: Mark Discoll

Driscoll is a Pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, WA.  He most recently has written a book entitled Who Do You Think You Are?  These are some of his thoughts from Catalyst 2013.

Identity:  Who do you think you are?

Complete this in your mind:  I AM ____________.

How you complete this, and who you think you are determines what you will do.

Who does God say you are?

1 Corinthians 15:25 outlines the 2 most important people that ever lived.  1) Jesus 2) Adam.

You need an identity that is life proof. The difference between a normal person and leader is the impact their decisions have on others.

Whatever your job description includes, make sure it doesn't include anything on Jesus job description...

"When your leadership role becomes your identity, it becomes your idolatry."

For many young leaders, we have a full tank of gas, and no map or direction.

Catalyst 2013: Louie Giglio, Dave Ramsey

Louie Giglio

Pastor, Passion City Church

Founder, Passion City Movement

He is also the author of  I Am Not But I Know I Am which is a great book that radically transformed some of my thinking patterns.

Louie preached a basic Gospel message and reminder on our Power Source. 

1 Peter 3:18 – Jesus brings you to God.  There is NO participation on our part.  We do not serve God by propulsion from our own effort by by the counterweight of the great exchange in our lives that comes from Jesus Christ alone.

We don’t have to ‘pad’ our testimony…our testimony is not about what you have done, but what God has don’t in your life.  Its not about YOU!

Too often we are so busy scaling through our contacts that we don’t even realize that Jesus is all we need and we have direct access!!

Dave Ramsey

National Radio & TV Host

Recently, he is the author of EntreLeadership an excellent book on leadership.

According to Dave, he believes that Luke 10:38 outlines 3 spirits when it comes to wealth...

1) Pride -- hard work makes us money...wealth does often result from hard work, but God gives everything we need along the way.

2) Devil provides wealth -- this is simply silly but many individuals believe it..

3) Graditute  - this is the spiritually mature approach.

--The final spirit says that God has given me wealth and He still owns it!

Money is not a pleasure, it’s a responsibility.