Ricky Van Pay is John’s brother. These Van Pay brothers are taking over the world! This is a quote from Ricky’s mentor (I don’t know who this person is but I like how he/she thinks).

“Planting seeds is the first part of authentically planting a church. It is seed time then harvest. Through the eyes of most of the unchurched people the traditional church has absolutely nothing to offer. The goal of planting a church is for people far from God to be drawn into close relationship to Him. The happens when people like you and Amy are willing to do whatever it takes to build authentic relationships and to ‘Be the Church’. This starts by planting God type seeds and leading these friends to a authentic relationship. I want to encourage you to not get sucked into the ‘Doing Church’ thing. It does produce income more quickly because churched people tend to give more readily than the unchurched. The problem is that the appraoch reaches churched people and The issue that I have with many ‘church planters’ is that they seem to be intent upon starting a service - tweaking the programs and calling it an innovative ‘church plant’. I personally get sick to my stomach when I hear these types of approaches. The world needs Jesus not another church.”

This is from John Van Pay’s post on the Process Ministry Blog. Great thoughts! Thanks John!

“Why would you want to start a church instead of going to an existing one?” Besides feeling that God has called us to launching Gateway, we felt like we were wired for this venture. Of course, anyone who has launched a church has their own rules, so I thought i would add with my own. My “rules” below aren’t just for those starting churches, but for those who are considering going to work for themselves as well. With most businesses and churches struggling to survive in their first year, it is imperative to have “rules”.

1. Don’t start a church unless its an obsession and something you are passionate about. I felt possessed by this consuming vision that I constantly think about when laying in bed, showering, and riding my bike.

2. If you have an exit plan, its not an obsession.

3. Recruit team players who you think will love working in your system and with you. Character, Chemistry, and Competence are the non-negotiables.

4. Transformed lives cures all. Know how your church will operate and how you will actually make disciples. A simple defined process that is understood by everyone is key.

5. Know your strengths and focus on being great at them. Get the best you can. Outside the core competencies, hire people or recruit those outside your strengths.

6. As far as technology, it is not the main thing. However, having a good website, video projector, blogs, blast emails, and podcasts are a great way to communicate in our culture.

7. Keep the church flat. If you have leaders and pastors reporting to other leaders and pastors in a startup, we will fail.

8. Never forget the “why” and the mission. For us it is to become friends with the unconvinced so we can help them become life long followers of Jesus Christ. Every person who we meet or walks through our door is the most important person, matters, and for whom Christ hung on a tree for.

9. Do as much as you can “in house” and save money.

10. Make volunteering fun for the team. Keep a pulse on the stress levels and accomplishments of your people and reward them. Surprising a key team member with a 3D U2 concert, random canoeing/cliff jumping, and handing out starbucks cards is way to have fun or celebrate during stressful seasons.

11. It is your responsibility to make sure your core leaders are growing. Offer accountability and opportunities for spiritual and leadership growth. Every team member is currently reading a leadership book so we can become better.

A few books that have influenced my “rules” are the Bible, 7 Practices of a Church-Andy Stanley, E-Myth Revisted, Simple Church, and Good to Great-Phil Collins

This past week I either attended or vicariously participated in three district councils. Here are my reflections.

Monday- Tuesday- Kansas District Council
The Kansas District Council sessions were held on the campus of Lenexa Christian Center in Lenexa, Kansas, where Mike Purkey is pastor. Superintendent Terry Yancey invited me to be one of three plenary speakers at their Tuesday morning workshop sessions. I felt a little like the subject of the “Sesame Street” song my kids grew up listening to…”One of these things is not like the other, one of these things does not belong” (or something like that). Dr. Jim Bennett was the first speaker. He serves as the director of the Center for Ministry to Muslims. This is a great ministry that advocates building strong discipleship relationships with Muslim folks. He shared some eye opening information about the growth of Islam in the US and how Christians can embrace Muslim people with the love of Christ.

After Jim spoke, I was up. (In case you haven’t figured it out, I’m the one who doesn’t belong.) I talked about the trends I see toward missional church planting everywhere I go and encouraged the leaders of the AG in Kansas to allow God to use them to start new churches everywhere that are laser focused on building bridges of relational discipleship to people who are far from God.

I was followed by Dr. Byron Klaus, President of the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary. Bryon talked about ministry in a “post-modern” context. He encouraged all of us by demonstrating how people with a holistic view of God’s interaction with people (commonly called Pentecostals) are uniquely positioned to connect with individuals who have a world view shaped by “post-modern” philosophy. He also shared some interesting insights regarding the role of “speaking in tongues” in a post modern context. Bottom line…”Pentecostals” have an “unfair” advantage on the “post modern” ministry playing field.

One aspect of this trip that was very special was that Cherri (that’s her picture on the right) was able to go with me. For those of you who have wondered…yes, I do have a wife and I definitely “married up.” More often than not, I’m on these trips without her, but due to the fact that I was driving to Kansas, she was able to go with me. The timing was impeccable because we are planning for the July wedding of our daughter Lindsy and Cherri needed to find a dress for the wedding. Ladies view these things completely different than guys. I’ve spent exactly zero seconds thinking about what I’m going to wear at the wedding. I’ll decide on that when I’m packing my bags to head out for the event. Cherri, on the other hand, has been concerned about this from the moment we found out the wedding was going to happen. She scoured every store in Springfield and Branson and came up with absolutely nothing that would work for her. Her main problem is that she is so small that she has a hard time finding her size. So, to her delight and my great relief, the very first store she shopped in K.C. had the perfect dress! (Thank you Stein Mart and please come to Springfield as soon as possible!)

Wednesday- Friday- Arizona District Council
After driving back from Kansas on Tuesday night, I jumped on a plane on Wednesday to zoom out to Phoenix, Arizona for the Arizona District Council. I teamed up with my good friend and communicator extraordinaire Alton Garrison, Assistant General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God. Superintendent Steve Harris and Secretary/Treasurer Ed Bradford asked Alton and I to emphasize the need for starting new churches. I did two workshops back to back on Thursday morning. (That’s a picture of Superintendent Harris and me to the right.) I talked about church planting trends and shared some thoughts about how existing churches can become reproductive. Those who attended the workshop expressed a high level of interest and passion regarding becoming church planters and parent church pastors. I’m hopeful that Arizona will become a leading district in church planting. I think they’ve got the will for it!

I also met Richard Kay, the Arizona District Director for an innovative ministry called Apartment Life. This is an incredibly missional/incarnational concept that has almost unlimited opportunities for application in nearly every ministry context in America. Bottom line is that this ministry opens the door to connect incarnationally with the tens of millions of Americans who live in apartments. Check it out.

I was also able to connect with my friend Lee McFarland, pastor of Radiant Church in Surprise, Arizona. Lee and Radiant just gave birth to Ridgeline Church, a daughter church pastored by Steven and Cheri Long, in the last few weeks. They got off to a strong start with over 200 attending their first public meeting. Awesome!

Rocky Mountain District
I couldn’t make it to this one because I have not yet figured out how to be in two places at once! However, Rocky Mountain is my home district (even though I live in Springfield). I spent 16 wonderful years of ministry in Utah and Colorado and I miss both the physical beauty and the numerous friends I have there everyday! (Not to mention my daughter Lindsy and my son Jeremy are residents of Colorado!) Anyway, this was a very significant district council due to the fact that Bob Cook, the previous RMDC superintendent, had accepted the invitation of Dr. Wood to serve as the Vice President of the AG Alliance for Christian Higher Education. So now Bob lives down the street from me, but RMDC no longer is blessed with his able leadership. I’m thrilled to say that my friends in Rocky Mountain selected Don Steiger to serve us as superintendent. Excellent choice! I think good days are ahead for the RMDC.

Icing on the cake
I got back from Arizona about 1pm on Friday, just in time to catch part of a key meeting with Ed Stetzer and a group of leaders from the National Office. (The meeting was put together by Alton Garrison.) Ed was invited to help us think about how we can do a better job of hearing from our pastors and leaders “in the field.” He gave truly excellent advice and I’m hopeful that in the future products and services that come out of the National Office will be much more relevant and helpful to AG churches. It was great to see Ed again. God is using him greatly and he has become a great friend to me and to this AG family.

When all was said and done, it was an outstanding week and tomorrow looks brighter every day for the AG family!