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

Need Your Prayers

I wanted to send out a prayer request to all the blog readers.

We are in the process of praying for a worship leader for our church plant. One thing that I know is that the position of a worship leader is a very important. I am not taking this search lightly. We have had two people show interest, but we want to know that God is in the decision.

So we need your prayers. Would you pray with us that God would reveal the right person for us.

If you are interested in leading worship, and feel that God has called you, feel free to contact us at 704-759-6355.

Filed under: Uncategorized , God, Relevant Church Charlotte, Worship

Defining Moments

We all have had one in our lives. Maybe some of us have had multiple moments. A defining moment is when the light bulb in your head goes off about the reality of a new, or old, truth. It is when you realized that the thing you have heard or seen all of your life is true. It may be unexplainable, but completely and undeniably true. The story in John 9 of the man born blind is a great story of a defining moment. This man was healed and had no explanation of how it happened, are really did not  care. All that he knew was that he was blind and now he could see. It was his defining moment of where the unexplainable came head to head with the undeniable.

For us, we tend to focus in on the unexplainable happenings around us and forget the undeniable truths that surround us. The challenge is how will we respond to those defining moments in our lives? How will you embrace the moment that will change you forever? Will you sieze the moment of truth, or will you retreat back to what is natural to you?

What is natural to us is that which we can explain, but I think God wants us to move beyond our comfort zones of what we know and what we can explain to embrace the undeniable.

I believe that we do not have to understand everything in order to believe in something.  There are many things about God that we cannot explain, but are undeniably true. The fact that He loves us so much that He chose to die for us is hard to explain or sometimes grasp, but the fact that it is true is undeniable.

One thing I know is, when I try to focus in on the unexplainable and really try to figure it out, my faith tends to wither. But when I turn my focus on the undenialble truths of God, my faith skyrockets.

God may be challenging you to think outside the box you have placed Him in. You know, that box that says “This is how I want God to answer me”, or “In order for me to believe, God must do this”. Please don’t miss out on what God has for you because you don’t have all the answers. The fact is, we will never have all of this figured out, and the good part about it is, God has never said we needed to in order to believe.

Remember, we do not have to understand everything in order to believe in something.

Filed under: My Journal, Uncategorized , blind, defining moments, God, Jesus, unexplainable

Freedom

This weekend marks our country’s Independence and freedom. Many people will be setting off fireworks and grilling out, but let us not forget what kind of freedom that we have. The freedom from sin and death that was provided by Jesus Christ on the Cross.

[youversion]Romans 8:1-2[/youversion] talks about how we are free from the law of sin and death. And [youversion]John 8:36[/youversion] states that if God sets you free then you are truly free (my paraphrase)

So this weekend as you and I are eating our hamburgers and watching the firework shows, let us remember that if you are in Christ, then your true freedom lies with Him.

Filed under: Uncategorized , freedom, God, independence, jesus christ, July 4th, Relevant Church Charlotte

Leading Like Jesus

I just started a new book and study entitled “Lead Like Jesus” you can check out the study here. As a pastor I know that one of the most important things is to love the people. Jesus gives us a great example in the life that He led on earth. He was the forerunner and model for servant leadership.

[youversion]Matthew 20:25-28[/youversion] states that Jesus came into this world to serve and not to be served. What a powerful statement!

How are you being a servant in the areas that you lead?

What will you do today to model your leadership style after Jesus?

Filed under: Leadership , God, Jesus, Leadership, Relevant Church Charlotte

Happy Father’s Day

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there. One of the greatest joys in my life is be the dad of 3 awesome kids. They are truly a blessing in my life.

Dads, God has given us the great responsibility of raising up a generation of men and women that will follow after Him. We should never take lightly the call of fatherhood. Whether you had a great father figure in your life or not, remember the best example we have is our Heavenly Father. He loves us unconditionally and shows us how we can do that with out kids.

I know that this is your day, but take some time to spend it with the people that matter most to us, our family.

Filed under: Uncategorized , dads, Father's day, God, Jesus

Satan Is A Punk

Over the last couple of weeks I have really seen how the enemy can really be a punk. I knew that going into the ministry was going to bring the heat, and I was kinda prepared for it. What I wasn’t prepared for was how sneaky and conniving Satan is.

Two weeks ago my family and some of our launch team leaders were going to prayer walk the area we are planting Relevant Church. We had it all planned out; we were going to have the kids play at the park while we prayed. As the kids began to play, it wasn’t 5 minutes and we heard crying a screaming. As I ran over to see what was happening, I saw my 7 year old daughter lying on the ground. She had fallen and broken her arm. Prayer walk was obviously cancelled.

Looking back on it, my wife and I were talking about the timing of it all. We both felt like the enemy used my daughter to break up what was going to be a great time of spiritual warfare.

The application to all of this is that we must be ready for whatever the enemy has for us. When we are doing the work of God, Satan is never happy. He will come after you and in my case my family. We are to put on the full armor of God (Eph. 6). This armor protects us, but we also need to be ready to be on the offensive and help protect those around us. The devil is a punk and he will come after you in whatever way he can.

The end of my story did not end at the hospital, I made a stand and went back to the same park the next day and did some warfare. Take that Satan.

Filed under: My Journal , God, Jesus, Relevant Church Charlotte, satan, spiritual warfare

Counting Blessings, Not Sheep

I just wanted to post something before I go off to bed. It has been a little while since my last post. As I sit here with my eyes closing from another long day, I am reflecting on what God is doing. I am so blessed. God has done so many great things in my life; too many to number.

I am completely overwhelmed at the fact that He has called me into His service. I have a chance to do one of the greatest jobs on the planet. No way do I feel like I deserve this call, but I know that He does not call the qualified, He qualifies the called. Boy do I need the qualifying.

We are only 112 days away from our first preview service at Relevant Church. We have a ton of things to do and very little time to do it in. I know that God is faithful and He will provide all that we need.

So tonight, I will be counting my blessings, not sheep.

Filed under: My Journal , God, god's calling, Jesus, relevant church, Relevant Church Charlotte, Religion, thanksgiving

Get Connected Pt. 3

The best way to start this post is to completely give God the glory for all He does. He is truly the God of all supply. With that being said, I wanted to give a quick update on the status of our “Get Connected” financial campaign. In my last post we told you about the 9 partners we have seen come along side us to help us toward our 40,000 dollar start-up goal.

I am so excited to tell you about how God has blessed us just this past week. We have been meeting with several people to ask them to become a partner of ours, and we have seen one person step up and donate 500 dollars! I told you God was good.

We have also been blessed with someone donating our business card printing, and another 2 people donating 300 dollars.

So far we have seen God move on the hearts of people to get us to 17 partners. These 17 partners have cought the vision of Relevant Church and know that God wants to connect with people in a deep way.

Please continue to pray for Relevant Church as we grow closer to our launch of January 10, 2010.

Blessings

Pastor Kalum

Filed under: Uncategorized , church, finances, God, provision, relevant church, Vision