J.R. Lee

Twitter.  If you don’t know what it is – you should.  Nowhere else can you get random and live updates from the people you choose to follow.  Check it out and join the fun.  Here are the past several updates you could have received…

• Another day another Severe Thunderstorm Warning.9 minutes ago from web

• Can’t use Nose spray til after I eat dinner. Otherwise I can’t taste my food.about 13 hours ago from web

• Almost MidWeek Review http://tinyurl.com/dh3topabout 17 hours ago from web

• @jondkenney Google is so that the research assistant can find the information they are looking for – a little bit more efficientlyabout 19 hours ago from web

• @malthegal Message planning stuff – assembling info. to keep me in line about 19 hours ago from web

• @meganstrange Email has been sent… Gracias (In honor of Cinco de Mayo)about 19 hours ago from web

• I want a research assistant.about 21 hours ago from web

• I’ve sneezed more in the past 24 hours than I have in the past 3 years.about 22 hours ago from web

• Just left a meeting with @gregroundtable i like that guy.4:19 PM May 4th from txt

• I have a love/hate (mostly hate) relationship with Auto-Formatting.12:42 PM May 4th from web

• Drank a gallon of water already today. Im about to drown.8:44 AM May 4th from txt

• Thrive is tonight and JR is pumped!7:50 AM May 4th from txt

• Another rainy day in GA.7:28 AM May 4th from web

• Round 1 of rocky IV is brutal…but round 2 is coming.8:34 PM May 3rd from txt

• Give it about two minutes and the tornado alarm will go off again. Its been at least three days.5:25 PM May 3rd from txt

• Think of the craziest person youve ever met. Someone crazier was @ FC today. Wow.5:12 PM May 3rd from txt

• Not sure why but i think its funny that chipper jones real name is larry.3:27 PM May 3rd from txt

• I am staring at a huge whale. A real one.12:54 PM May 3rd from txt

• Crazy day. Taking lexi to the aquarium.11:38 AM May 3rd from txt

• Gotta meth addict here who said god wanted her to speak in hebrew today.9:40 AM May 3rd from txt

We’re going to be making a few changes to this blog and I need your help.

How?  Leave a short comment answering just two quick questions.  No seriously, please do it!   Blog stats say between 600-800 people read this everyday. I need to know who you are so we can make some improvements.

• Who are you?  – Are you from Freedom?  A church planter?  Family/friend?  Just someone who stumbled across the blog?
• If you were to receive the greatest gift you could ever receive for under $15 – what would it be?

Your answers will help us as we revamp this thing and yes you might win something…

One of the first questions every church planter asks is “how am I going to get paid”?  The second is like it “if I am going to start multi-staff, how in the world am I going to provide for them”?

Here is our story…
We have 5 staff members.  Three are full time and two work part time. 

The three full-time staff members (including myself) are responsible for raising their financial support for the first couple of years.  The two part time staff members work full-time jobs in other locations. 

Support can be raised in several ways. Here are the two most common…
1.  Partner churches who believe in the individual and the vision of the new church.
2.  Individual partners (friends, family, visionaries who believe in the vision, etc.)

 This is a difficult process but I wouldn’t change it even if I could.  I love the idea of hiring on vision alone.  Recruiting staff with nothing to offer financially will help you find out quickly who is on board and who is not.  When your team is rallied around a God-given vision rather than a paycheck – something great is being born!  Do we desire to become self-sufficient as a church ASAP…absolutely.  Will we reward those who sacrificed to see this become a reality…you better believe it!

Not sure if this is the best way to do things – this is how we did it – and I wouldn’t change a thing.