What if your church acted more like . . . 

This week we’re looking at some other parts of the community of Christ and asked what if your church was more like them! Join the conversation . . . I’d love you to leave some comments below.

At some point your church was planted . . . whether that was 30 months ago or 30 years . . . some group of people got together with a shared vision and started the church you now serve in.   Those where the the good ‘ole days . . . and the bad ‘ole days!  Somewhere along the line your church leadership settled into the routine it’s currently in and stopped acting like a start up.  You moved beyond the “are we going to survive beyond this weekend?” fire that burns in an early church start up.

But what if the exact thing you need as a leadership team is to regain some of that energy in your midst?

Here are a few ways that you can start acting like a Church Plant this spring . . . and potentially regain some of that focus and drive . . .

• Invest in Articulating the Vision // When was the last time you took time out to clearly explain why your church exists?  Church plants go to great pains to explain their key differentiation as a new work.  Who needs to hears the vision today? [A fantastic book on helping you communicate vision.  A must read.]
• Assess Your Leaders // A heathy trend in the church planting movement is an emphasis on formalized assessments of new church planters.   What if for your hires you are making this spring you added some outside voices to the decision making process? [What if you assessed your leaders like this?]
• Ask Everyone to Help // There is a large percentage of church community that doesn’t serve on a team . . . they don’t serve because you don’t need them.  (Really . . . you don’t . . . if you “needed them” stuff wouldn’t happen without them.)  What if you created a need so large that it required an “all hands on deck” response from your people? [What if you mobilized hundreds of people to serve like this?] [or this?]
• Raise Finances // Church plants wait for the mail to arrive during the week because they need every dollar that comes in to push the mission forward.  They get really good at asking for financial help.  What if it was only finances that were holding you back from the mission?  What if you made a concerted effort to raise some extra finances this spring?  [Check out the Giving Rocket dudes for help with this stuff.]
• Thank Some People // Church Planters are grateful people.  They are just so thankful that anyone showed up, signed up, or helped in anyway.  When was the last time you took some time to thank some people?  Have you written any thank you cards this month?  [Get these 72 Thank You cards and challenge yourself to use them all in one week.]
• Faith Based Risk // Have you done anything lately that could really blow up in your face and potentially not work?  Church plants task risks all the time.  Have we become too safe in our leadership? What risk could you take this spring that would keep you up at night and praying about it? [I’d love to hear about it!  Email me!]

Church Planters are my heroes.  They are on the front line of kingdom of God!  I think we all could stand to act a bit more like them!

What are some actions that you’ve seen church planters live out that established churches could learn from?  [In what ways should we be acting more like a church plant? Leave a comment!]