J.R. Lee

I hear a story very similar to this ALL the time in the world of church planting.  “All Hell is coming against us.  No one has as difficult a journey as we do.”   These stories come in many forms.

• “A major church supporter backed out of a $55,000 promise.”
• “A key person our our team is getting the vision – just not the one for OUR church”
• “The people from the facility we want to meet in – keep telling us no”
• “Churches are popping up all around us so it’s keeping us from reaching our potential.”

The list could go on and on.  Every church planter has a similar story.  Every one! That means your situation is probably not 10x harder than that of people around you.

You can complain and make excuses for mediocrity or you can move ahead knowing that God knew the situation He was calling you into.  Go after it!  God’s greatest miracles occurred when His people were facing insurmountable odds.

Church planting is sexy to a lot of people for a lot of reasons.   Some that seem good and others, well, not so much.

I can’t emphasize this enough – don’t start a church because it seems appealing.  The only reason to start a church is to answer a calling.   I’m sure that previous statement sounds cliche, but if you attempt to start something for any other reason – it’s not going to last.

If God’s called you to do it – go after it!  If not, don’t waste your time (or the time of anyone else).

Every single day, I realize how much there is that I still need to learn.  As a result, I always seem to have a lot of questions. Actually, since moving to Acworth, GA last year, I have asked more questions than I had in my entire life combined.

I will say that I have made a small shift in the way that I ask this list of endless questions.  Now, instead of concentrating exclusively on the what, I tend to concentrate on the why.  For example, if this is “what” you would do in a given situation – “why” is it that you would choose this course of action?

By asking “what”, I was just getting a particular leaders opinion.  By asking “why”, I am learning their thought process.  To me, that has been more valuable than the answer to the question itself.

At Freedom Church, we constantly try and increase our capacity in the area of systems, leadership, and any number of other things.  This is something we must consistently do in order to continue moving in the right direction.

All those are vital, but there is another area that tends to be overlooked.  I’ve heard people say my whole life that “sometimes your talent can take you further than your character can sustain you.”  With that in mind, our staff has been praying fervently for God to continue increasing our “integrity capacity”.

Admitting we aren’t above temptation, adding safeguards to our lives, and allowing other people access to the real us will propel us in the right direction.  This isn’t always the easiest thing to do – but it’s worth the fight!

Church planters call in several times a week asking who we suggest they order their Audio/Video/Lighting needs through.  There are a few great companies out there – but we have recently ran across a company who has done a fantastic job for us at Freedom.   The owner is Eric Baker and he has a passion to help churches.  He knows what he is doing and is definitely worth checking out!  Give him a call and he will be able to hook you up.