Day -1: Light the Fuse....

All the meetings are over.  The plans have been formulated.  The start up funds have been procured.  The campus pastor has been hired.  The opening worship has been planned.  And even the first sermon has been written.  All that is left to do is light the fuse….

It might be the hardest thing to do in getting something started – starting!  Starting something new is fraught with risk and danger.  Starting something new opens you to criticism, to the possibility of failure, makes you come face-to-face with the real possibility of wasting others’ valuable time and dollars and when it’s all said and done, all you may have accomplished is making a fool of yourself.

It’s little wonder why so many pastors (and so many churches) are stuck – we are afraid of lighting the fuse.

I belong to a denomination that loves to study things.  We form commissions on top of commissions to study the right way to do everything.  We do our best to eliminate any chance of failing before we start something new.  Only problem – we never start anything new!

Our practice has been: Ready – Aim – then(and only then) do we dare fire.

But when starting something new, the theory ought to be – Ready – Fire – (go see where your shot has landed) – then (and only then) do you take take aim...so you can go shoot again!  

If you don’t get started, you will have nothing to adjust. Nothing to fine tune.  There will be no need to take a second (or third or fourth or fifth) shot if you never take the first one. 

Your first 100 days are all about starting things, getting the ball rolling, shaking things up, poking the box, making mistakes, learning from those mistakes and then trying something new (all so you can make new mistakes!)

Sure a life spent curled up in a ball, hiding in the corner, is less risky, but what kind of life is that?

In less then 12 hours, our first worship service at the new campus will be behind us.  So, all I have left to do is go to sleep….but before I do that….let me see if I can find a match….

Something to think about:  What is it going to take for you to start the one thing you have been to afraid to get started?  Why not start it now?

Day – 3 & - 2: "Plans are Useless…

but planning is indispensable."

When I came to Redford Aldersgate the very first thing on my 100 Day To Do List was :  Start Holding Regular Staff Meetings.  Pretty revolutionary, right?  You might not think so, but when I arrived the staff was not meeting on a regular basis, so beginning with my first week on the job, I began holding regularly scheduled team meetings. (Monthly at first.  Weekly now.) 

The message I wanted to communicate was simple:  We are a team!  We are in this together!  We are going to work together to accomplish ministry in this community!

One of the reasons churches become stagnant is that they have fallen into the trap of becoming pastor-centered.  In the pastor-centered church, the pastor does everything.  The pastor decides everything.  The pastor makes every thing happen. 

The problem with a pastor-centered church is that the church can only grow as big as the pastor can handle (usually around 150 – 175 persons in worship.)  Building a team approach to ministry communicates that while the pastor is clearly the leader – it is the team (both staff and volunteer) that makes ministry happen.  In the team approach, the pastor is not the sole leader, but becomes the leader of leaders.

In the weeks building up to this launch, we have spent a lot of time in meetings planning and strategizing.  Here is the deal – most of these plans probably won’t come to fruition (at least not how we envision them today.)  But the time we have spent in planning is building a team that trusts and communicates and is committed to the vision and to each other.  This kind of team can roll with the changes and rise to the challenges when plans change – and trust me, plans always change!

Something to think about:  Are you building the kind of teams that will grow your ministry and roll with the inevitable changes that you will face? 

The quote at the beginning of this blog is attributed to Dwight D. Eisenhower

Days - 5 & - 4: Paying the Rent

There was no question about what to write today.  With less than a week before the launch I suddenly found myself with four funerals in three days!

Funny, nobody consulted me as to whether or not this was a good week for their funeral.  Didn’t they know that my plate was completely full and “my plan” was all ready in place for the week?  But here I am, with four funerals in three days (and a new church to launch in five!)

In planting a second site, you become aware very quickly that you are doing it while making sure the first site remains vibrant.  In fact, at the beginning, the strength of the launching church is what provides so much of the energy to make the second site possible.  So you have to take care of the existing church while birthing the new one.  

Sounds pretty elementary, doesn't' it? But it is pretty easy to forget.  Then all of sudden you have four funerals in three days – and let’s just say you are reminded.

Paying the rent.  It was the first lesson my first senior pastor drilled into us at my first appointment.  “Pay the rent and you will be able to try some new things around here….don’t pay it and you’ll be done before you even get started.”

What is rent?  It’s what keeps the lights on and doors open.  Its what keeps the home fires burning and the goodwill flowing.  It’s the cost of doing business. 

And in this business rent is the care for people.  

Rent is phone calls and visits when people are sick or in the hospital.  It’s responding to emails in a timely fashion.  It’s going to potlucks, spending time with retirees and making sure you don’t forget to send a card to the shut-in who turned 94 yesterday. It’s rent.  It’s people.  It’s what makes ministry happen.

When the rent is paid, even the folks who are not sure about this "new thing" you are attempting, are still apt to support you.  If the rent is unpaid, you are going it alone.

So this week I have rent to pay.  I suppose I could get all frazzled about my plans being upset, but I have to tell you, paying the rent is the best part of this job!  It is why I got into this in the first place.  

The second site will launch in four days and it will do so now with the memory of these four, now departed, saints fresh in our memory.  Something tells me they will be cheering us on!

Something to think about this week:  Are you clear about "the rent" that needs to be paid in your ministry site and are you willing to pay it? 

Day - 6 Clean Your Car

Today, at the top of my "New Launch Checklist," is Clean the Car.   In fact, I plan to have Clean the Car at the top of my checklist every Monday for the next 100 days.

Here is what I am learning:  The startup takes everything you got (and then some.)  It’s like launching a rocket.  So much more energy is expended in getting the ship off the ground than there ever is in keeping the ship in orbit. It takes a lot to get things moving.  It takes more than you ever realized to break free of the gravitational pull that wants to keep you where you have always been.

So what does that have to do with cleaning your car?

Well, because the launch takes so much energy and focus, other things in my life have had to take a back burner for a minute.  Case in point, my car.  It is a mess – inside and out, the visible effects of 12 weeks of pouring everything I have got into this launch.  There are papers and water bottles and books and garbage all over the floor.  The dash is grimy and console is pretty gross and the outside is dusty and dirty from months of neglect.  It’s quite a site. Truth be told, I am embarrassed to take anybody anywhere in my car.

So, in midst of everything it takes to launch a new church, I am learning that I have to build in disciplines that connect me to the rest of my life, to the bigger picture in which all of this is happening.  Cleaning my car is just a simple way to make sure I am not completely losing myself in the immensity of this project.  

Cleaning my car will help me take inventory of my life and get a fresh perspective on the start of the week.  

It will clear out the clutter, both literally and spiritually, that gets in the way of staying focused.  

And it will remind me that I have a life beyond this launch! (And a great life at that, with a great wife and awesome kids!)  

Funny how cleaning your car reminds you of those things….I will take the reminder any way it comes.

Here’s to Clean the Car Day! 

Day -7 Prayer

Yesterday was the last Sunday before the launch.  People are both excited and nervous about what lies ahead.  So, we did what we do in moments like this….we prayed.

I am not sure what role prayer plays in the start up of a new business or if there is page on prayer in the entrepreneur’s handbook, but in this line of work, you simply cannot go forward without it. 

Prayer is where we draw our strength.  It is how we deal with our doubts and fears.  It is where we receive visions and ask for help.  

I am not always sure how prayer works – I just know it does.  

So, in the midst of everything that needs happen in the next 100 days, all of the planning and plotting and preparing, we will also be praying (a lot).  

I hope you will be praying with us too....

Day - 8: The Plan

Fail to plan...plan to fail.

Cliche?   You bet.

Truth?  Absolutely.

When I came to Redford Aldersgate 3 years ago, I came with a list of fifteen things that I wanted accomplish in the first 100 days.

That list is what I looked at every morning when I woke up. 

It is that same list I reviewed every night before I went to bed. 

The list is what helped me organize my days.

It's what helped me decide what phone calls to make and what emails to write. 

It was my guide in knowing when to say yes...and when to say no.

This list was my plan. 


Do you know what makes a great architect?

Great ideas?  No.

An incredible sense of beauty and design? Not even close.

What makes a great architect is the ability to get their ideas out of their head and onto a blueprint – to translate their “brilliance” into something that can actually be built. 

So many of us pastors walk around with incredible visions about what the church might become – of how we might reach more people and move closer to the Kingdom of God.  


Our problem is not a lack of good ideas or vision.

No, our problem is that most of our dreams and ideas never leave our head. They stay entombed in our heart. They never get put on paper. They never turn into a blueprint. They never become a plan. Which unfortunately means they never get built.

As we prepare to launch the West Outer Drive campus, we have lots of ideas but we also have a list.  We have a plan.  Is it the perfect plan?  Only time will tell. But we have set a course of action and we are going after it.

So let me ask you:  As you look at the next big thing you know God is calling you to do – do you have a list?  

Do you have a plan?

Start one today.

Day - 9: The First 100

The first 100 days in a new church can set the tone for everything else that follows.  We are about to launch our second site at West Outer Drive in large part because of the direction that was set during my first 100 days at Redford Aldersgate.

Simply put:  Your leadership will never be viewed as fresh as it will be in those first 100 days.

Excitement about new possibilities will never be any higher than they will be during these first 100 days.

People will try things during during your first 100 days that they would have not tried before and probably will not try after.

So go for it!  That’s all I can say.  Go for it!

Be bold.

Preach your best stuff.

Lay out the biggest possible vision for the church you can imagine.

Be inspired.  Be inspiring. 

Try the things you swore you would try if you ever had a chance at a fresh start.

Take risks.  Shake things up.

This is your one chance at a first impression. Make the most of it.

It used to be said that when starting at a new church the preacher should sit back, watch, listen, take it all in – and most importantly: “DON’T CHANGE ANYTHING!”

If that was ever good advice, it is not any more.  The mainline church does not need another season of being comfortable.  Complacency is what got us in this mess in the first place. 

We are gearing up for the first 100 days – and we are going to do everything possible to make them count.

Day -10: Why Are We Doing This?

This year our church was asked to take on a God-sized project.  What’s a God-sized project?  A project that cannot  that can only happen if God shows up!  So yes, this project is probably a little bigger than we should be taking on, but we are doing it – trusting that God has called and that God will provide.

What are we doing?  We are starting a new church!  We have been asked to add a second site to our existing ministry.  So, beginning July 1 we will be "One Church on Two Locations."  Our second site is just 3 ½ miles down the road in the Brightmoor community, one of Detroit’s most economically depressed neighborhoods.  Consider just a few of these numbers:

·         $10,196 per capita income                                       

·         32% have not graduated from high school        

·         64% live below the poverty line                          

·         47%  unemployment rate                                     

·         81% single parent homes                                 

This is a big endeavor and we don’t bring much money to the table.  We don’t bring a lot of people either.  Truth be told, even though our church is growing, it often takes everything we have just to keep our own doors open.  So why are we doing this?  

We are doing this because of what we do bring to the table...

We bring two of the most precious commodities in the world:  Possibility and Hope.  

With them you have chance to change the world.  Without them you might as well stay home.

We see possibilities for this new site.  And we have hope for Brightmoor, for Detroit and yes, we even have hope for the church. 

Is this going to be hard? You bet.   

Are there going to be times we wish had not done this?  I am sure.   

But when those moments come we will come back today, day -10, and remind ourselves where we dwell:   

We dwell in possibility 
We dwell in hope.