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

Help Relevant LAUNCH with a BANG!

Well, Relevant Church is opening it’s doors for our first preview service in 22 days. Pretty exciting stuff! We have been preparing, planning, and asking for financial donations, but we really want to make an impact. So I am going to ask for something different. I believe that we can make an impact in our world even before we open our doors.

There is an opportunity for all of us to come together and provide clean drinking water to those that are in need. I would love to see us be able to provide for the building of 1 well that will supply clean water to 1 community serving 50 families.

You can be a part of something huge. Let’s do this and make an change our world, one community at a time.

Click on either one of the links above to help. You can also spread the word to help us make this happen.

Filed under: Outreach/Missions, Uncategorized , charity, clean water, 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

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

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

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

Your Help Is Needed.

Right now I am putting together a yearly sermon calendar and I have hit a creative block. I am looking for some creative ideas to help fuel the fire. I have the following series themes without the meat to go with them

1. Community (4 weeks)
2. Family series (4 weeks)

I would love to hear your feedback on what these two series could look like.

Thanks

Filed under: Uncategorized , Bible, God, Jesus, preaching, relevant church, sermon, sermons