What I Have Learned So Far

I had a great lunch yesterday with a friend of mine, Pastor Chuck Angel from Georgia. (bridgepointechurch.org) He was the member of the ARC assessment team that was assigned to me and Tracy. We sat and chatted about all kinds of great stuff and then we began to talk about church planters and expectations. I shared with him how almost every expectation I had about starting this church has gone unmet while at the same time great things that i could have never expected or planned for have happened. I read the books, went to the seminars and interviewed several planters so i THOUGHT i was pretty prepared for starting this church. After all, i was coming from a fairly large church. I had it all figured out in my head like a mathematical equation. Enough mailers and advertising would cause the right amount of people to show up for week one and then 50% would return for week two and we would be at the 200 barrier (or close to it) and..............there you go. Instant church. I tell you after that first Sunday when 99 people showed up i was totally messed up. That was with 28 adults on our launch team, 11 adults from another church to help and every kid we could count!!! I want to share some things that i have learned so far being 7 months into this:

So far it has been more about what God is doing in me than in the church.
There have been so many things that God has built in me and knocked out of me during this time. I am understanding that I was not ready to lead this church and the worse thing that could have happened to me would have been huge numbers. And it would have caused me to loose focus of the assignment of this church.

Jesus really does build His church.
Do everything you can as a planter to pull off a great launch but at the end of the day, God is the one that will get the people there or see to it that they don't show up! I am not saying that God doesn't want people to come to Christ or doesn't want your church to be a success. I am saying that in my case having a big crowd there would have hindered what He wanted to do in me and it would have caused us to miss His purpose for being in Vegas. Everything that has been successful so far has been a direct result of God's work. Bringing the right person, the $$ showing up right on time, opening a door that we didn't even know to knock on!!

If there is any quit in you at all, don't plant a church!
Our first 3 months of doing church, there were 3 Sunday's total that i left there thinking to myself, "If i were a guest, i would go back". The rest of the time i left aggravated, deflated, depressed and disgusted! (I am not kidding!) If i was a quitter I would have packed up and headed back to Alabama several times. This has been the hardest thing i have ever attempted in my life but at the same time it has been, by far, the most rewarding and fullfilling thing I have ever been a part of.

These are the big 3 lessons that I have learned so far on this journey and i know there are sooooo many more to come. I am at the place as a follower of Christ, a husband, father and pastor where i welcome the lessons because I know that God is at work here in Las Vegas and He is teaching me to be the man that can join Him!