A letter to my younger self.

To Kevin, age 21, 

You are just starting out. You and Veronica have only been married two years and your first son Jordan has just been born. Before you begin your journey, growing into the man you want to become, I would like to give you some advice.  

You are very driven, and that is good thing, but don’t let your private desire to succeed for Him and make a difference in this world, be the driving force in your life. Even though your intentions are good, if you don’t run this race well, eventually your desire to make a difference could be replaced with a desire to be known… and that is where things could go dreadfully wrong. 

Let the pure pursuit of Jesus in your private life be the driving force of who you are and what you do for Him. You will find out in just a few short years, that success in the public eye will be temporary at best, but what happens in your private times of prayer will give you strength when you are weak and impact your family for years to come. 

Don't ever be afraid or ashamed of doing what others or even yourself may deem as small. You will find that it is the small things that make the biggest impact in you and those that will soon be around you. Simply do what God will call you to do and let Him take care of the size and so called results. 

As you grow in Christ, leadership, and position. Pay more attention to your father than you do the “rising stars” of the Christian world that you will know and rub shoulders with. 

Some of these men will achieve what most pastors and church leaders aspire to attain. They will all have large churches, nice salaries, and national book deals. Some will speak around the world and have a measure of Celebrity. However, you will soon discover that many will be absolutely miserable. Some will secretly struggle with pornography, others will be unfaithful in their marriage, succumb to addictions or have nervous break downs. These great men in the public eye will struggle greatly in their private life. They will fizzle out by the time they are in their mid 40’s, and begin by Gods grace, the struggle of putting their lives back together. 

Your father on the other hand will be totally different then these men. He will Pastor three churches throughout your life, none of which will ever grow to more than 200 people in average attendance. He will shepherded well, preach the word, and steward money faithfully. 

Your father will never be in the public eye and no articles will ever be written about his ministry. However, when he retires, he will be happily married, in perfect health, run 2 to 4 miles per day, and have no need for medication for any sort of physical or emotional ailment. 

After faithfully serving for 30 years as a Senior Pastor, your father will have left a mark on everyone he had come in contact with. He will have run the race of faith and leadership the way it is supposed to be run.  

Kevin, over the next several years many people are going to come and go in your life. During this time, watch your father closely. Follow his example, because he will soon be one of the happiest and most content men that you know. 

Never stop serving Veronica. 

Always put your children before your ministry. 

Do what God calls you to do, even when it hurts and you will experience more than you ever dreamed. 

Trust me. The best is yet to come! 

3 lessons I've learned the last 3 years.

1. The right team members are essential.

It is impossible to build anything of lasting value alone. We all know this, but far too often in our desire to achieve our dreams, accomplish our goals, and build something of lasting value, we very quickly start adding people to our lives, teams, and departments. However through the years, I have learned (many times the hard way) that ... 

I don't need people. I need the right people.  

I don’t need mentors, I need the right mentors.

I don’t need a partner, I need the right parter. 

Scripture teaches us in I Timothy 5:22 Do not be hasty in laying on of hands, and do not share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure. One of the ways of interpreting this is to not add people to your team, ministry, or life too quickly or you may have a mess to clean up.  

What we are called to do is to important. We don’t need team members, we need the right ones.

2. You’re going to fail a lot and that is ok. 

No matter how much you know or how hard you work, you are going to fail.  

Dr. Sues was turned down by 24 publishers before he got his book deal. 

The makers Formula 409 tried and failed 409 times before they got the ingredients right. 

Thomas Edison failed over 14,000 times when trying to invent the light bulb. 

The secret to success is not “never failing”. The secret to success is being willing to "fail until you succeed".

3. Communication will create or solve any problem. 

Never underestimate communication! When we have clear explanations, firm expectations, and consistent two way communication; we will not only complete our project, we will build a great team. 

If you want to learn more check out our FREE GROWTH VIDEOS 

Ten things every church planting team needs to know. (Part 2)

6 - Understand your Ministry is probably not as friendly as you think.

Of course you think your church is friendly. You are a leader in it. Everyone knows you, talks to you, and wants to say Hi to you! But what about the person who is totally new, and doesn’t know anyone? Who greets them?  Who talks with them? Who answers their questions or invites them to grab a bite after the service? Model friendliness, teach friendliness and set up systems where your people and leaders are released to be friendly as well as follow up with newcomers each week. 

7 - Make systems that serve people. Not people that serve systems.

Systems are meant to solve problems for people, but too many times systems are the problem that keep us from reaching more people. Every month take a look at how you are doing, what you are doing and what needs to be changed in order to serve the needs of your greatest asset, people. Never be a slave to your systems. 

8 - Protect the vision at all cost.

The vision is not yours it belongs to God, so protect it. Preach the vision in a way that inspires people. Delegate the vision in a way that releases people. In everything you and your team do each week, stay true to the vision of bringing people to Jesus and helping them live like Him.  

9 - Only do what God has called you and equipped you to do.

You can’t do everything so don’t try. Sometimes we do so many things that we actually don’t do anything well. There is no way, we as a church or you as a leaders can or should do everything all the other churches are doing. It is better to only do 3 things and have them all be great, than do 10 things have them all be mediocre.

10 - The structure that got you where you are may not get you where you need to go. 

If you have a 1400 sq. ft house and you want a 4,000 sq. ft house you are going to have to change your foundational structure. If you have 50 people and you want 500 people then you may have to change your organizational structure. Never change for change sake (that’s stupid) but if you want something in your organization to change, don’t be afraid to change the leadership structure of your organization.

Ten things every church planting team needs to know. (Part 1)

1 - If you are going to offend someone let it be because of the Gospel. 

If you are going to offend someone make sure it is not because of the way they were greeted, treated, talked to or followed up with. If for some reason a person attends your service and leaves offended make sure it is because they did not agree with the Gospel message, not because of the way we presented it.  

2 - Remember that your target audience is the lost - not the found. 

Jesus said that He came to the world to, ”Seek and Save the Lost”. The Church is like Jesus coming into a community. He wants to work thru you and your team to “seek and save the lost”, not “borrow and steal the found”. So make your target market, people that are not already plugged into a church. 

3 - Put emphasis on building a body of believers not filling up a building. 

The Church is not just a 501c3 not profit organization. The Church is not a building. The Church is people. The Church is People that are passionately pursuing and publicly proclaiming Jesus. Your greatest asset in ministry is not your finances. Your greatest asset is not your facility. Your greatest asset is people. So as you work at building the church, use your time, energy, and resources to build and gather your greatest asset. People.  

4 - Be relationally liberal but biblically conservative.

If you want to reach people you are going to have to be in relationship with them. That means if you want to reach lost young people, you and your team are going to have to be in relationship with people that think, act, and believe differently than you do. 

As you are liberal with who you live life with, you have to stay conservative on how you live your life. Be friends with everyone, but as you are friends with them, be sure that you always, believe, teach, and model the principles of Jesus found in the scriptures. 

5 - Give people a chance to become owners of a ministry not members of a club. 

Members have rights but owners have responsibilities. As a Leader in the Church you do not want members of a club. Members are people that pay some money to have the right to sit down and tell other people what needs to be done. Members are people that simply show up and let others do the work for them. As a Leader in the Church you need owners. You need people that are not only financially invested but also physically alongside of you, so together you can do the work of the ministry, bringing people to Jesus.

For more ministry tips check out Youth Ministry University or Build 6 Month Growth Curriculum

Consuming Christian products or producing Christ followers? (Don't read this if you don't have thick skin).

There is a whole generation of people that think, attending a concert, worship night, or hearing their favorite speaker at a mega church event is being a Christ follower. 

There is absolutely nothing inherently wrong with any of these things. However, Christ has not called us to simply attend events, He has called us to fully follow Him. 

Jesus did not call us to a concert, He called us to surrender our lives.  

Jesus did not call us to hold a book written by our favorite Pastor. He called us to let go of sin. 

Jesus did not defeat death, hell and the grave, so that we could be entertained. He shed His blood so we would serve others the way He has served us. 

Far too many believers in Jesus today are consuming Christian products, rather than producing Christ followers.

I have been as guilty of this as anyone.

Several years ago, I came to the concussion that I am done.

I am done consuming, I want to produce.

I am done being entertained, I want to serve.

I am done attending, I am going to fully follow Jesus. 

Are you done? 

I hope so. 

Questions to ask today? 

Have I surrendered to Jesus?

How am I doing at loving others?

Where am I serving in the Kingdom of God?