Dream Come True

In just 2 days, I get to embark on a journey of a lifetime. Relevant Church opens its doors for our very first preview service on October 11th. This has been in the making for 5 years now. It has been an exciting journey, and I know that the fun is only beginning. We are looking forward to what God has in store for us at Relevant. Here is a little video promoting this weekend. We hope to see you there.

Filed under: Church Planting, My Journal, Uncategorized , Relevant Church Charlotte

Church Planting Lesson #5 – Church Planting Takes Patience

This is part 5 of my top 5 church planting lessons. This one is all too real to me. I have had to learn this lesson the hard way. Our vision for Relevant Church came to us over 5 years ago and we are now on the starting line of our launch.

The greatest thing that I have learned is that God will do things in His time, not mine. This does not only apply to church planting, but to everything in our lives. I had to release my time table to Him and allow God to work the process. This was not an easy thing to do since I like to be the one driving, but what I have come to learn is that when He is driving, I always get to where I need to be.

Are you waiting for something? Does it feel like God is taking His sweet old time? Just know that God is never late and never early, He is always right on time.

Filed under: Church Planting, Leadership, My Journal , Church Planting, Patience, relevant church

Church Planting Lesson #4 – Church Planting Involves Risk Taking

Over the last year and a half that we have been in the process of planting Relevant Church, I have understood that it takes stepping out and taking risks. By nature I am not a risk taker. I like to calculate the costs and make sure everything is in place. But sometimes God calls us to step out and take a risk for Him. Understand that the risk is not something that will harm us, but stretch us in our faith.

I have seen this in our dealing with the financial piece of planting this church. We have had to take risks and purchase items that were necessary only to see God provide something on the other side. A risk may also be bringing in a leader that may not be real proven, but someone you feel God has called to do the work.

All risk taking should be giant leaps of faith. Don’t step out in your own thinking and take a risk, step out in the calling of God and take a step of faith. It may stretch you, but that is what God is in the business of doing with us.

Filed under: Church Planting, Leadership , Church Planting, relevant church, risk taking

Church Planting Lessons #3

Here is the third part of a top 5 list of lessons I have learned planting a church. For those that need a review…

#1. Church planting takes a calling.

#2 Church planting takes time.

#3  – Church planting takes God.

Now I know that most of you might think “well, isn’t that obvious?” But the reality of it is, God must be at every turn you make. I have seen this at work in the last few months especially. God has to be in the big things as well as the small things. I have often seen myself focusing on the tasks that need to be done and pulling God in on the big stuff. The one lesson that I take away from this is that God cares so much about the vision He has given me, that He wants to be involved in the smallest details of the work. To be truthful, it is His plan and we are the workers He has chosen to complete it. So the plans and details all come from Him anyway.

Don’t lose sight of the “plan maker”.

Filed under: Church Planting, Leadership, My Journal , Church Planting, God, Relevant Chruch

Top 5 Things I Have Learned As A Church Planter Part 2

Yesterday, I started my post on the top 5 things that I have learned planting Relevant Church.

Let’s review..

#1. – Church planting takes a calling.

And now #2 – Church planting takes time!

Now I know, everything takes time. But what I have learned is that planting a church takes an extraordinary amount of time. As a lead pastor your time is spent casting vision (the fun part), designing budgets, raising funds, recruiting a team, and the list continues. What I have learned is that if I don’t prioritize my time, then the things that suffer are usually my family and walk with God. Too many times have I found myself replacing the “being” with the “doing”. As a church planter it is vital that my walk with God stays the priority. The reality is, there is stuff that needs to get done. Learn to prioritize and delegate. The key to longevity.

Filed under: Church Planting, Leadership, My Journal , Church Planting, God, relevant church

Top 5 Things I Have Learned As A Church Planter

Over the next several days I am going to post my top 5 things that I have learned as I have been on the journey of planting Relevant Church. Now let me say that this is not in any particular order, nor is it an all encompassing list. There has been a ton of things that I have learned along the way, and there is a ton that I still need to learn. So, for the first installment…

#1. – Church planting takes a calling.

Not everyone is called to be a church planter. 6 years ago I would have said that I was not one of them. Hearing the call from God, we pursued the calling. Along the way there have been detours, bumps, and distractions that have caused us to go back to the calling that God gave to us. Knowing that we were called and given an assignment, gave us the foundation and the faith to keep moving forward. I really believe that if you are called to plant a church, God will give you the strength to go through anything. Know this, church planting is not for the faint of heart. It is hard, grueling, stressful, but very exciting and rewarding.

Stay tuned for the rest of the list.

Filed under: Church Planting, Leadership, My Journal , Church Planting, relevant church

Get Connected Pt. 2

In my last post I told you about our financial campaign we were beginning. We are calling this campaign the “Get Connected” campaign. The thought was to allow anyone to be a part of what is happening with Relevant Church.

This post is to give a quick update on the progress. We started this just this past Monday 5-12-09 and already we have 9 people committed for $100 each. God is awesome and He continues to blow me away with His provisions.

With that being said, we still need your help. You can be part of advancing the Kingdom of God from wherever you are. We have a start-up equipment budget of $40,000 that we need to meet. Our need is not just dollars, it is also equipment. If you have the ability to donate any equipment on our list, that would go to help us reach our goal.

Some of the major items we are in need of are:

1. A sound system
2. Enclosed 20′-24′ trailer
3. Computer and video projector
4. Printing (we are in need of getting biz card, brochures, fliers, banners, and signs)

Would you consider becoming a partner? Help Relevant Church connect people to Jesus.

Filed under: Church Planting , budget, church, Church Planting, donations, finances, God, Jesus, partners, relevant church, Relevant Church Charlotte

Get Connected

Relevant Church is a new, exciting, and diverse community of people that are dedicated to seeing the people of Charlotte NC connected to Jesus. Charlotte, NC is one of the fastest growing cities on the East Coast. The growth numbers are staggering. Our commitment is to the people of this great city. Our desire and passion is to give ourselves fully to the mission of reaching the lost for Jesus. Our hearts are big, Our dreams are bigger, but we know that Our God is the biggest. With all of this being said, we still need YOUR help.

We have 2 goals that you could help us attain. We are calling this financial campaign “Get Connected.” We want you to have an opportunity to partner with us as we connect people to Jesus.

Our first goal is to raise $40,000 for all of the equipment we need to have to launch. You can download a copy of our equipment list to see what we need. Our prayer with this goal is to see 400 people donate $100 each to help us raise the funds. We know that starting a church in the middle of a recession isn’t the smartest thing to do by the world’s standards, but God is calling us to raise up to His standards and to trust in Him.

Our second goal is gather monthly partners. These partners would donate help support Relevant Church in maitaining our monthly budget. Our prayer is to raise $100,000 in yearly support for the first 2 years. Our goal is to be self supporting by year 3. You can download a copy of our first years budget here.

Financial donations are always a blessing, but there may be items on the equipment list that you, your business, or church could donate. Not only will the cash equivalent of these donations count toward our grand total of $40,000, but these donations are also tax deductible.

If you would like to know more about who Relevant Church is you may email us at or you can download a copy of our vision proposal here.

Remember, all of your financial donations are tax deductable. Please send your financial support to

Grace Covenant Church c/o Relevant Church Plant

17301 Statesville Rd

Cornelius, NC 28031

“Please mark all payments for Relevant Church Plant.”

Feel Free to check us out on Twitter and you can check out Pastor Kalum’s Facebook and Twitter pages here.

Filed under: Church Planting, Uncategorized , church, connected, finances, fund raising, God, Jesus, relevant church, support, Vision

Programs or Steps?

I am currently reading Andy Stanley’s book 7 Practices of Effective Ministry, and I just came across something that made me think. It was his idea of running “programs” or creating “steps” for ministry.

How many churches out there are measuring themselves on the amount of programs they are running? Are you too busy with the calendar that you are missing the mark of effective ministry? Andy states that many “churches have a reputation of doing ministry without an end in mind”.  Having the goal in mind makes all the difference in effective ministry.

Being a church planter, I have read many books and studied many ways to do church. The one thing that I have concluded is that ministry is about being focused on what God called you to do. There are a ton of “good” things out there to do, but there are a few “God” things that each church is supposed to do. We can get wrapped up in doing the “good” things and miss the “God” things.

I am challenged to make sure that we are focused on what God is calling us to do.
How about you? Are there some things that need to be pruned at your church? Are there some things that need more focused attention? The process of focused ministry can be challenging if you are a well established church, but the effectivness that can come out of it can be greatly rewarding.

Filed under: Church Planting, Leadership , andy stanley, church, effective ministry, Leadership, ministry, Religion

Relevant Update

Happy December to all of you. Thanksgiving is over and Christmas is around the corner. It is hard to believe that the year is about up.

I wanted to give you all an update of what we are working on for the month of December so you can pray.

We have put together a list of families that we are going to invite to a home meeting this month to share our vision and heart for the church. We are going to take some time to fellowship and have some fun as well.

We would like you all to begin to pray that God will start working on the hearts of those families and others that we may not know yet. We are going to ask for a committal as to what their involvement might be.

Our other major request this month is to nail down a meeting place. We have put a decision date as January 1st on where we are going to meet. We have looked at several schools and we are determining which one is the right place. Please pray for God’s discernment.

Thanks for all of your prayers.

Pastor Kalum
Relevant Church

Filed under: Church Planting , church, Church Planting, God, prayer, relevant church