Aaron Loy's Ragamuffin Blog

Calling vs Choice in Church Planting

The first time I journeyed down the church planting road I kept coming across something I found to be quite obnoxious. Everywhere I turned – every organization, every denomination and every mentor that had been down this road before kept asking me about my “call.”

“Are you called to plant this church? When were you called? How were you called? Are you sure you’re called?”

It was obnoxious. What was this “call” that everyone was talking about and why were they making it into such a big deal? I mean, I thought I was called. I had been journeying with Christ for some time, loved people and ministry and felt like this was what I was supposed to do next.

But even so, just the idea that someone might count me as disqualified because I couldn’t recall some supernatural moment in which God said, “Therefore goeth Aaron to Toledo and planteth a church” really irked me.

Why couldn’t someone just choose to create something as beautiful and redemptive as a new Christ-centered, missional community with their lives? Wouldn’t God honor that? After all, isn’t this sort of thing precisely what he has called all of us to be a part of? Then why the insistence on something that at best seems, well, optional?

Well, I didn’t really get it back then but I think I am beginning to understand. You see, I continued down that road and low and behold things got hard. Actually, that is an understatement. The experience included some of the darkest months of my life personally, emotionally and spiritually. It was the hardest thing I've ever had to go through. And I'd say it's just been in the past 18 months that I've finally got the pieces of my soul all put back together. It was a tough road, one in which I regularly struggled with feelings of deep anxiety, insecurity, loneliness and a powerful undercurrent of doubt.

That was a few years ago.

This time, however, the journey has been completely different. Unlike the first time, my calling isn’t a fuzzy ambiguous sense but a clear and undeniable call to Lincoln at this time. (I’d love to share more about this but that will have wait until another day.) And can I tell you something? It really makes all of the difference. Although the road will no doubt be difficult, this time around I journey it without any anxiety. No fear. No hesitations. Complete security in Christ. And that undercurrent of doubt? It has been transformed into a powerful movement of hope and promise.

So I think I am beginning to understand why a specific calling is so very important to a work as trying and unpromising as church planting. There’s just too much common sense that must be completely and regularly ignored. If you do it without a clear call, then you are just crazy. If you do it with a clear call, then you are obedient…and crazy.   

Ok, so going back to our original question: do you need to be “called” in some extraordinary transcending way to plant a church? Technically, although some would disagree with me, I have to say “no.” We all make a number of choices each day to either honor Christ or deny him, to serve our own purposes or to serve God's purposes in this world. Some of those choices are small and some of those big, but more often than not it still comes down to our choosing whether we will honor or dishonor God with our actions.

But that being said, planting a church is not just one choice, but tens of thousands of hard choices, often under hard conditions. It is extraordinarily difficult. It involves lots of heartache, lots of trials, lots of failure and it can be very lonely at times. Every church planter will tell you he has days when he seriously doubts whether this thing is ever going to work. I mean, statistics show that 85% of church plants fail in the first 5 years. There are a lot of good and talented men and women represented in that 85%! But it takes far more than talent and good intentions to plant a church.

And when the going gets tough (which is often), when those you have loved and invested so many months and years in decide to up and leave to go to the church on the other side of town with the new worship center, when all funds are gone and you are trying to figure out how your family is going to survive, when you feel like there is no possible way you can succeed and that for all practical purposes you are alone most days in this thing, you had better be either clearly called or be the most faithfully stubborn S.O.B. to walk God’s green earth. (In concrete terms, this means you do not have a history of flakiness, half-hearted committment, bailing on projects/people or rarely finishing what you start, but rather, you have a history of seeing things through to completion, resiliency in face of adversity and steadfast commitment.)

If that's you and other seasoned leaders have affirmed your leadership and are encouraging you to plant, then I say go for it! But if not, wait for the calling.

Our Greatest Work in Divine Movement

Our journey in planting a church in Lincoln, NE continues – and what an exciting journey it is turning out to be! Things are beginning to fall into place, God is stirring powerfully within us, preparing us for what is ahead, answering huge prayers, new possibilities are opening up, new people are joining us, new challenges are presenting themselves and God has been teaching us so much along the way.

In all of this, God has been teaching us one great truth that towers above the rest: There is simply no substitute for prayer.

I am learning that it is not only on one’s knees that great dreams are birthed, but it is in that place of submission and intercession that great dreams are also carried out to fulfillment. It is on our knees that great dreams become more than just dreams.

I know if we’re honest, most of us really don’t like that answer. Some have undoubtedly exited this post already to go find something more exciting and pragmatic. Leaders are doers. It’s just a part of who we are. But here’s the deal, if you insist on always doing at the expense of praying, you can count on your church being a truer reflection of what you can do rather than of what God can do. 

Think about it. When we work hard, cast compelling vision, make strategic plans based on our goals, create programs and initiatives to move us to where we need to go, steward our leadership well in seeing plans executed, goals accomplished and vision carried out (all good things by the way), but we fail to fall on our faces before God, who do you think typically gets the praise when things go well? You got it: leadership. When we refuse to pray, we unknowingly put ourselves in a position where we can now potentially take the glory for ourselves. Perhaps this is in part why God loves to display his strength in our weakness. We all need the reminding from time to time.

As we move forward in planting Mosaic-Lincoln, it has been incredible to see God begin to answer prayers in huge and unexpected ways. Some of the things that have happened in the last several months can only be explained by divine orchestration. Some of the things He is calling us to in the future can only be accomplished through divine intervention. Honestly, these things are terrifying...but they keep us on our knees. And I am finding that that is exactly where God desires for us to be – crying out to him on behalf of the city of Lincoln.    

You see, I am learning that when we lay our lives down at the feet of Jesus – when we surrender our hopes, our dreams, our plans, our successes and failures and all of the junk we’ve accumulated along the way – when we give it all up and begin to ask God for the things he desires, God loves to deliver.

When we begin to cry out to God for lives to be changed by the gospel, for captives to be freed from the addictions that enslave them, for the poor to be raised up from the ashes, for the broken to be put back together, for justice to reign, for new life to be breathed into our neighborhoods, for a movement of God’s grace to sweep through our cities, there is nothing that God delights in more than to say, “Yes.” But it all starts right here. On our knees. In prayer.

Mosaic Thoughts on Communication

One of the things we do pretty regularly as part of the protege program is prepare and deliver 5 minute talks. (These are uniquely challenging because of how focused having just five minutes forces you to be!) The talks also give us a chance to put into practice some of the things we've been learning and give each other feedback on what we're doing well and where we need to grow in our communication (a big part of the program). This morning Hank Fortener, Mosaic campus pastor of the Mayan downtown joined us. His input and feedback is always so good and this morning was no exception. He are some of the things he shared that really stood out to me. I hope they prove as helpful to you as they were for me: 

Gauging Spiritual Maturity

Perhaps no other factor plays a more central role in shaping a church’s ethos than how it measures spiritual maturity.

As an inherently spiritual community, the church’s gauge for spiritual maturity essentially defines success for its congregation. In other words, the church’s measuring stick identifies the goal that everyone ought to be shooting for. Is the ultimate aim to accumulate a wealth of theological knowledge? To be passionate about humanitarian issues? To be an outspoken republican? To become a central leader in the church? To live a life of simplicity? To not do anything "bad"? 

The easiest way to get a feel for how a church gauges spiritual maturity is by looking at its leadership. These men and women represent the kind of lifestyle, discipline and/or giftedness that is deemed worthy to lead (and thus most valuable) in that community. In a way, they represent the quintessential believer because they set the bar for what it means to be spiritually mature, or at least spiritually mature enough to lead everyone else.

If a church says that true spiritual growth is revealed by acts of compassion, but the majority of its staff has theology degrees and spends most of its week in the church office, then it is the latter that comes to be understood by the community as the standard for spiritual maturity. Although that church might really believe that spiritual maturity ought to be fleshed out through acts of love in theory, it is communicating through its own action that in actuality theological education is the ultimate gauge for maturity.

This is extremely important for leaders to understand because whenever certain qualities are considered more valuable than others by a community, that community will find itself attracting, developing and retaining people with those qualities. Over time, the community inevitably becomes a reflection of its leadership.

Don’t believe me? Take a moment to think of an established church near you that places a very high value on biblical knowledge. They probably teach through the scriptures verse by verse, use lots of big words with extensive theological meaning, regularly examine the original Greek and Hebrew texts, argue that one biblical translation is superior to all others, generally assume that people will bring a bible to church, encourages extensive note taking on Sunday morning and most of their staff have a seminary degree or its equivalent. Okay, are you picturing it? Now survey the general characteristics of that congregation. I’d venture to guess that the church you are picturing has a very high theological IQ compared to most churches. Chances are that its members (like its leaders) would blast most of yours in bible jeopardy. These are the sort of people they attract, retain and develop because that is how they have come to define spiritual maturity.

Although the details change, the story is always the same. Churches that use the Knowledge Gauge are really good at bible trivia and enjoy lengthy theological debates. Churches that use the Financial Generosity Gauge have white teeth, pleated pants and large budgets. Churches that use the Tolerance Gauge have a smorgasbord of sin issues and very few hard conversations. Churches that use the Faithful-To-Show-Up-Each-Week Gauge have apathetic congregations and less and less young people. Churches that use the Involvement-In-Church-Functions Gauge have very full calendars and lots of single women. Churches that use the Frugality Gauge have small budgets, organic produce and no parking issues. It all comes down to how you measure spiritual maturity and how that value is reflected in your leadership.     

So how does your church measure spiritual maturity? What is your gauge? What cherished "spiritual" characteristic is most clearly modeled by your leaders as the most important? Is there consistency between this and what your church says it values most? Or how about between this and what you are asking of your people? If not, what needs to change? And most importantly, what does your gauge say about what you believe as a church? Is it biblically sound? Or did it generate from somewhere else?

(In part 2, I'll be looking at the way Mosaic gauges spiritual maturity and how that fleshes itself out in the church. It's probably not what you think...)

Epic Mistakes in Ministry

You ever think back to something you did and wonder to yourself, What was I thinking?! Perhaps it was your first ministry gig or one of the first times you were trusted with significant responsibility and you did something of such epic stupidity that it still makes your face hot to think about it?

When I was in my early twenties, I was hired as the part time worship pastor for a church plant in Lincoln, NE. I had previously sworn to never work for a church. As a wounded pastor's kid, I had spent most of my young adult life avoiding church people. So when I took the job, I did so with more than a little hesitation and with a big church-person-sized chip on my shoulder.

So you can about imagine how well I handled it when anonymous comment cards started coming in attacking myself and the worship team for (of all things) wearing hats on stage. All of the bad pk memories came flooding back as I remembered the people who had caused me to tuck tale and run from religion so many years ago. Adding to the fire was the fact that these comment cards represented a direct contradiction to the vision of our church (the reason I was there in the first place). I was primed and ready to flip.

Then one week I received a particularly scathing comment card. Its author took cheap shots at various members of the worship team for their unacceptable attire on Sunday mornings - particularly their wearing of hats - and what they believed that reflected about their character. And in true coward form, it was once again anonymous. I was livid. But ya know, it probably wouldn't have been that big of a deal if I hadn't been on deck to preach one of my first sermons that coming Sunday.

Church Planting w/ Erwin McManus & Co. (pt 3)

This is the 3rd and final installment of my notes from last week's church planting class at Fuller Seminary with various leaders from Mosaic.

Octavio Martinez:

I am at a place where I just don’t care what people think of me unless they’re a non-believer.

I love my Christian brothers and sisters. But I just don’t care if they are worried that I am slipping from the faith, not focused enough on soul formation, or praying for me (or my demise) because I am meeting with a non-believer at a local bar in Whittier.

The church will actually become a reflection of you – your DNA, your virus, etc. You cannot ask people to do something you’re not doing. They are going to watch how you live. That is their only frame of reference. So you may be able to talk a great game about being missional, but if you’re not living it, it doesn’t matter.

Church Planting w/ Erwin McManus & Co. (pt 2)

This is 'part 2' of my notes from last week's church planting class at Fuller Seminary with various leaders from Mosaic.

Erwin McManus:

You cannot inspire passion when you start from a narcissistic core. It can’t be about your need to feel important, your need to be valued, your need to lead, etc. It has to be about what this tribe needs.

Passion and excitement are different. Lots of communicators can generate excitement. It is all about the moment, like fireworks. Passion is generated by sustained risk. Passion is generated by people watching how you live, what you are willing to risk.

When people sense that you are risking greatly for your own good, they might be willing to risk for their own good. But when you risk for the good of others, they will begin to risk for the good of others.

We need to stop asking what kind of church we want to plant, and start asking about the kind of world we want to create.

Church Planting w/ Erwin McManus & Co. (pt 1)

This last week I had the chance to be a part of a church planting class at Fuller Sem with various leaders from Mosaic. It was beautiful in that the spirit of the conversation all week was, "This is what we've done, doing and trying to do and what we have learned along the way. It isn't necessarily right, this is just us." There was really a spirit of humility and it was very conversational all week. It made me proud to be a part of Mosaic.

Interestingly, however, there was some real hostility towards Erwin when he taught on Day 2 - had a couple walkouts, some angry questions and probably lost 1/3 of the class by the end of Day 3. This was especially interesting given both the spirit of humility and the fact that Erwin was far more gentle and accommodating than normal. Seeing such a lack of teachability and such a resistance to creativity and innovation in the church only served to reinforce my lack of faith in institutionalized Christianity and its ability to change. The class itself was a great illustration of precisely why we need new faith communities (and why having a seminary education in no way qualifies one for ministry).

I have had a few people ask for my notes from class, so I thought I'd share some of those here. Unfortunately, there is some great material that I didn't take notes on because I've heard it so many times in the last year. So what you are getting is bite size nuggets that stood out to me personally. I'll be rolling out my notes in 3 parts by presenter - Chad Becker, Erwin McManus and Octavio Martinez. Hope that they prove as helpful for you as they have for me.

7 Keys to Starting a Movement

Some things are so good that you just need to hit "copy and paste" and share it with the world. This is one of those things.

Rt:

A few things I think we can learn from this video.
1. One man can start a movement.
2. A movement need not be started by the most skilled member of the movement.
3. When beginning your movement and you look around and no one else is joining the dance, just keep dancing.
4. When the one guy who joins your movement slowly fades away, keep going.
5. Before you know it, the people joining your movement won’t even know you started it.
6. When your movement takes a life of it’s own, just let go. There will be no stopping it.
7. The very people who are staring at you like your nuts as you movement alone, will be the very same people dancing the hardest in the end.

How to Kill Leaders or Run Them Out

Don’t talk about leadership.

Never trust people with any significant responsibility.

Avoid risk.

Assume you are the expert.

Stay clear of men and women who might challenge your leadership.

Never ask things of people that require any real sacrifice.

Make sure all major decisions have to go through you.

Never expect much of others.

Don’t model personal development.

Invest your time and energy in those who are most needy.

Make sure you remain the most talented person in the room.

Don't talk about leadership.