Church Planting is Hard

This is the hardest thing I’ve ever done.

Remember that scene in Wild Hogs (very funny movie) when Martin Lawrence gets to the convenience store to unclog the toilet and the clerk says “I saw my father shot, but I did not cry till today. I was robbed yesterday, and I know now, your job is the bad one. “

This is how I feel sometimes about church planting.

I started a Master’s Commission from scratch on the other side of the country when no one had ever heard of Master’s Commission. That was hard.

I ate brain tacos in 115 degree heat in a Mexican village on a mission trip, I ate haggis in England on a ministry trip and I lived as a homeless man in the inner city for a total of 6 days. That was hard.

“And I never cried…..Now I know your job (church planter) is the bad one.”

Ha, ha. I hope you’re getting my sarcasm here, it doesn’t come out very well in a blog but anyway. Church planting is the hardest ministry I’ve ever done…..it’s also the best.

As I learn and grow I’m sure I’ll get smarter (at least I hope I will). I meet pretty regularly with a couple of guys that advise me in what I’m doing and that help is invaluable. As I go I know I’ll make mistakes (I’ve already made a ton) and I hope to do a few things right.

I’ll keep this blog updated with both.

Thanks for reading, talk to you soon.

How I Became a Bi-Vocational Pastor

I went “full-time” in ministry in 1997. I did this by starting a program for low income kids and raising my own salary (through grants, etc.) at a church in Greeley. I did that for a year and then was hired on by the church. For 9 years I was a full-time pastor. Last summer I resigned my ministry position to plant Mosaic church. We planted Mosaic with no money, no parent church, no money pledged, no nothing. We just went for it.

Right away, I noticed one thing. After I resigned from my old church, my kids still wanted to eat at least 3 times a day. Dang, what to do, what to do? So I dusted off my resume and started to apply. Initially I was given the old “thanks but no thanks” from the Starbucks management training program. The form letter said something like, “thanks for applying but we’re going to pursue other candiates at this time.” Shoot! What do I do? I really felt like starbucks was going to come through. This is what I did. I walked into a Starbucks in Greeley to have coffee with some friends and I saw a flyer for a management hiring fair. I can’t lie, I was a little put out because these guys didn’t hire me but now they’re doing a management hiring fair. I thought “Man, I must really suck.” So I just said “here goes nothing” and I showed up at the hiring fair about a week later. When I walked in, the lady that had sent me the letter was at the front table. She recognized my name and said: “Didn’t you try applying already?” Oh, well, we’ll give you a shot to interview with a district manager and see what he thinks.

Long story even longer, he hires me. Thank you God! I started as a Starbucks RMT - Regional Management Trainee (I think) on Sept. 10th and we had our first Mosaic service on Sept. 16th. What a week!