J.R. Lee

I think that one of the requirements for planting a church – is filling out a ton of forms every couple days.

These things have a million questions ranging from how many books you are reading to how many doors you have knocked on in the past 30 days. I always feel so strange answering that particular question… Why?

I am not a door to door salesman trying to convince people to buy my “product”. We (and our entire launch team) spend a lot of time and a good bit of money doing whatever it takes to build real relationships with the people in our community. Buying food (cookies, cake, whatever) for the people in our neighborhoods (check). Buying a million doughnuts for the college students in the dorms at KSU (check). Planning random cookouts for people that we don’t even know (check). That is our “knock on doors” philosophy.

We are trying to love people where they are…period. Doesn’t matter if they go to Freedom Church, the church down the street, or they would rather be cheesegrated than show up at a church. Until we show people that we care about them – with no strings attached – our impact will be very limited….

Since there is a tennis court in my neighborhood – we have spent quite a bit of time out there. Here are a few things I have realized.

Knowing the right things to do and knowing the “perfect” place to hit the ball does not guarantee success on the court.

Knowledge is important – but it is only beneficial if partnered with execution. Knowledge minus execution and/or application is irrelevant.

We are praying for knowledge AND the ability to execute. Without both – we are done before we even get started.

When a sports team becomes successful over a period of time – it will inevitably draw a ton of new “fans”. Every great team (minus the Spurs) has a significant bandwagon following.

The same is true when it comes to church planting. Right now, it seems that planting churches is the thing to do. There are a lot of church plants that are experiencing tremendous success and a lot of people are aspiring to follow in their footsteps. That is GREAT, but here are a few thoughts…

Planting a church because it’s cool? – buy a new car…
Planting a church because it is exciting? – go jump out of an airplane…
Planting a church because you hate the one you’re in? – find a new one…
Planting a church b/c you want to be the “lead” pastor? – get over yourself

Don’t misunderstand this post…By all means – plant churches. Just make sure that the MAIN reason that you are planting looks like this…

Planting a church because God has called you to do so? – Go for it!

Any other reason and you WILL fail. God’s call is the only thing that will sustain you. Bandwagon fans jump ship when times get tough. Bandwagon church planters do the same. Be the real deal. Answer the call – just make sure that is what you are answering.