Ernie The Dud

Well, it’s about 1:00 PM here in Central Florida and the most Ernesto has done is drop some rain.  In all honesty, the few real rain bands are still about an hour out.  The winds have really been downgraded so life here has gone back to normal.  All in all, Ernie has proven to be a big dud.  Thank the Lord!!!

We Stopped Looking At Totals

Unlike many church planters, I didn’t spend college taking
Bible courses or attending seminary (I’ll share more about this in a later
post). I was a business major. I fell in love with economics, accounting and
statistics.  However, it was
macro-management that really got me emotionally charged . . . the ability to
see the big picture of a company then determine success, failure or needed
change. In those classes I learned that
totals don’t really prove anything in business – it’s percentages that show
success or failure.

Several years ago I arrived at the idea that totals prove
very little in church work when I was doing some administrative consulting at a
Central Florida church. They were having some financial problems and I was brought in to make
suggestions on where they could cut. After looking things over I felt – among many things – that the $60,000
salary package they were paying the youth pastor was way too much.  They were not getting their bang for their buck.

A healthy youth ministry in any church should count for no
less than 10% of the total attendance in the church. The youth pastor had been there for almost
eight years. He took the youth group
from 55 teens to a little over 100 in that time. For many churches this youth group total
would be cause for celebration! The
problem . . . the church ran over 2,500 in weekly attendance. In over seven years the youth pastor and
youth ministry was bringing in less than 5% of the people. To make matters worse, they had never had one
youth baptism. Almost all the kids had
church homes before coming to this church. The totals looked good, yet the percentages showed the church was
getting the bum deal.  They kept the pastor on staff, but set some new goals for him.

In my life as a pastor – first on staff at other churches –
and now as Lead Shepherd of Compass Point, I am amazed at how many pastors
don’t understand that totals don’t really mean much. When I have a guy at a pastor’s conference
tell me they are running 500 in worship I wonder, “500 what?” Does he mean 500 people that didn’t have a
church home or 500 people that hopped over from other local churches? Does he mean 500 folks that are getting a
meaningful weekly dose of community and Bible study in small groups or 500
people that just show up for the Sunday morning “show” to enjoy the cool videos,
kicking lights and rocking band?

I’m honestly not trying to sound holier-than-thou, I just
think it’s time we started asking some tough questions about what total
attendance numbers really show. It’s
easy to spout off a cool “pastoral” number at a planter’s conference to pump up
our fragile preacher egos or “one-up” someone else – which I have been known to
do. The question though, comes down to .
. . are we really affecting people for change with our church plants? To answer that question, Compass Point
stopped looking at totals and started looking at what we feel are the important numbers . . . percentages.

When we planted we took the time to really look at what our
goals were as a church plant and to design a ruler for measuring whether we
were actually meeting the vision. We felt
a calling to reach unchurched people. For us unchurched is defined as anyone not actively involved in a church
for over sixteen months. To break it
down into modern church-planting concepts our initial target market was not based on age, race, social-economic status, music style, location, etc. It was simply the unchurched of Lakeland, Florida.

We also wanted to make sure that folks were not getting
saved, baptized and then out the back door. We knew that small groups were of paramount importance to Compass Point
- much more so than even Sunday mornings. For us success was not how many unchurched people came through the front
door, but how many never exited out the back door.

The measuring stick we set for determining success, failure
or the need to make changes was based on percentages. Since the spiritual goal for our flock is
life change and ongoing spiritual growth we only count Sunday attendance in
order to compute the percentages. Please
also note, we have never had a numeric goal for Compass Point - only
spiritual ones.

We concluded that success in meeting the purpose and calling
of Compass Point meant that we needed to see 70% of our attenders be unchurched
– having had no church home in at least sixteen months. As I stated in yesterday’s post over 80% of
our folks meet this goal. Within that
percentage almost half have had no church home in their entire life before
coming to Compass Point.

We also determined that Compass Point would not be
considered a healthy church until over 65% of our attenders were actively
involved in a weekly small group. At
present our percentage is around 58% so we have more work to do there. I really won’t be happy until we reach
100%. Lofty goals I know, but necessary!

Compass Point was planted to reach people that other
churches were not. In essence, we would
be horrified to know that we pulled one person from another church. We were never called to illicit “Kingdom
trading”, we were planted to see “Kingdom growth”.  Tracking percentages and not totals is the only way to make sure we are not engaging in pulling people from other churches!

As a church plant seeking to reach unchurched people with the Good News of Jesus Christ, we have dismissed totals as way of
determining success. Totals – for us –
are like a Polaroid. Pretty to look at and able to be quickly produced,
but strictly show a shot of the surface. To
measure our ability to meet our calling we need an MRI or X-ray to see what the make-up is like on the inside. For us, using percentages meets
that need.

We Planted Differently

For several months I have been wrestling with what I should . . . and should not post . . . on my blog.  Not that I plan to write anything overly offensive or vulgar.  I’s just that many of my ideas about church planting in the 21st Century fly in the face of what many others write about in church leadership/strategy books and post on their blogs.  In essence, it’s a total opposite to the modern-church, mega-church, multi-church mentality.  Not that those are wrong, I just think they are a bit dated.  They are reaching folks now . . . and doing a tremendous job with the late twenty-somethings and up . . . I just think they may not be able to reach the upcoming younger generation with their current models.

Compass Point began a little over two years ago as a home Bible study.  In that time we have seen steady growth in unchurched, young 20-somethings.  More than 75% of those attending our church are under the age of 25 (not necessarily in the summer, but when college is back in session).  Also, we have 82% that attend regularly that had no church home before they darkened the doors of Compass Point.  I guess the greatest number . . . to us . . . is that 89% of the people that visit Compass Point stay.  We have found those that left after trying us were area church folks that were semi-church hoppers (we do exit interviews).  Finally, our Sunday attendance has quadrupled in the two years since we began.

The problem is this . . . we hardly do any of the things we hear about in books, blogs or at church leadership/planting conferences.  Many times we do the opposite!  We do not advertise, we do not concentrate all efforts on Sunday, we do not use a rocking band, we do not conduct seeker-sensitive ministries, we do not rely on programming, we do not emphasize technology, we do not do mass events and we do not usually emphasize series preaching.  Yet, we are still reaching predominately unchurched, young people and families.

So why am I sharing this now?

For the last year I have been used by the Florida Baptist Convention to speak to church planter’s at their "Basic Training" conferences.  Not all of the conferences, but some.  My presentation at the conferences - while based on assigned topics - flies in the face of a "shock and awe" planting strategy that some other state church planters have been pushing (I’ll explain "shock and awe" in a later post).  Over the last several months I have been encouraged by folks attending those conferences to start posting my ideas about church planting on this blog.

I have resisted because . . .

a)  Compass Point is not running 1,000 people so who would take me seriously.

b)  Assuming that one’s opinions actually count is kind of egotistical.

c)  There are already a butt-load of people blogging about planting churches.

d)  People are pretty opposed to ideas about church planting that aren’t the typical modern-day model.

e)  The experts are pushing the mega-church, multi-site, modern-technology-model and I might come off as petty when I suggest the opposite.

Yet, two recent emails and a posting by Tadd Grandstaff finally pushed me over the edge.  They were asking the right questions for planting churches for a younger audience.  However, they (especially the folks that sent the emails) were getting quite a bit a flack for questioning the current, accepted model for church planting.  I think it’s about time to shake up that model a bit.

Over the next month or so I will post things that we . . . the church plant team, staff and elders of Compass Point . . . have discovered the hard way about reaching the unchurched-25-and-below crowd.  The opinions are in no way meant to be taken as shots at any particular church, pastor, blogger or leader.  They are just things that we have discovered in our journey . . . things that other people reaching younger, unchurched folks are also discovering.  I am . . . by no means . . . an expect . . . and the strategies, thoughts and ideas that I post may not work in every situation.  They will be things that have worked for Compass Point and the folks we are reaching.

Feel free to comment, email, rant, rave, disagree or ignore.

You’re On Notice

The Big Mo

Momentum can literally spell life or death for a church.  While I believe the first question church planters must continually be asking themselves is, "How do we reach the unchurched with the Good News of Jesus Christ?" . . . the second question we should constantly ask is, "How do we create the Big Mo (a.k.a., momentum)?"

Scott Whitaker has posted on his blog, what I feel to be one of the best explanations about the Big Mo that I’ve ever seen.  I would recommend every church planter, pastor or leader to read this.

We Don’t Podcast Everyting

At a conference recently I was asked about our podcast, particularly about why we do not always have a new message podcasted every week.  The answer is pretty simple, we don’t feel like some message are for the whole world . . . just for Compass Point folks.

I realize that we have kind of an extended "family" through our podcasts.  We have some guys on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico that listen to it.  We have a rancher in North Dakota that listens to it.  We even have a few folks in Australia that listen each week to the podcast of our services.  The only problem is that some messages - like the ones from the past two Sundays - are only for the Compass Point family that is physically here in Lakeland, Florida.

We were doing a short two-week message series called "Outside The Box" in preparation for some new servant evangelism projects to be conducted locally this Fall.  Therefore, the staff and I felt like they were messages only intended for those attending Compass Point.  Other people - not physically here - probably would have been lost in the series because we mentioned specific area locations and places.  We did, however put up an "invitation-only" streaming audio for our college students that will be returning in a few weeks.

Left me also say that, while I appreciate the folks around the world that tune into our podcast, I was called to shepherd a local fellowship in a small Central Florida town.  They are my first love in ministry and some messages I preach are only for them.

With that in mind, we podcast about 85% of our messages each year.  If folks would like to hear the other 15% . . . let me just say . . . Lakeland, Florida is a great place to live! 

Gary’s Right

I make it a point to never disagree with Gary Lamb . . . particularly when he’s right!  Dilana is the only choice as lead singer for Supernova!  She totally nailed "Every Breath You Take" tonight!  I really dig her voice . . . kind of Tina Turner . . . kind of Pat Benatar . . . kind of Kim Carnes . . . kind of Anne Wilson.  She’s already a star and would be a great front-woman for Gilby, Jason and Tommy.

I also have to give props to Ryan.  While I don’t think he’ll make the band . . . or should make Supernova . . . he’s making the most of the opportunity by performing his own, original songs.  Talk about a killer record company showcase backed by a killer band!  He’ll get signed to his own deal because of the show.

Greatest Job & Tonight’s Music

First of all, church planting is the greatest job in the world.  I can’t figure out which baffles me more . . . that I’m blessed enough to get to do this for a living or that people keep showing up at Compass Point week after week.  Yeah, there are ups and downs . . . but, it is an incredible ride.  Today was just one of those days where I really thanked God for the calling he placed in my life.  Nothing out of the ordinary or particularly special . . . just a wonderful feeling of adventure!!!

With all that said, I’m listening to David Bowie’s "The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust" tonight.  It’s not necessarily my favorite Bowie album, but I heard "Starman" on Rock Star: Supernova this week and just had to hear Bowie do it.  There are many other great songs on the album and the intro licks to "Ziggy Stardust" is a guitar classic!

Greatest Job & Tonight’s Music

First of all, church planting is the greatest job in the world.  I can’t figure out which baffles me more . . . that I’m blessed enough to get to do this for a living or that people keep showing up at Compass Point week after week.  Yeah, there are ups and downs . . . but, it is an incredible ride.  Today was just one of those days where I really thanked God for the calling he placed in my life.  Nothing out of the ordinary or particularly special . . . just a wonderful feeling of adventure!!!

With all that said, I’m listening to David Bowie’s "The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust" tonight.  It’s not necessarily my favorite Bowie album, but I heard "Starman" on Rock Star: Supernova this week and just had to hear Bowie do it.  There are many other great songs on the album and the intro licks to "Ziggy Stardust" is a guitar classic!

A Really Weird Day

It’s about 10:00 PM (EST) and I still haven’t completely mentally processed the day.  The service itself was good . . . not great . . . but good.  Quite a few of our normal volunteer leaders were getting in those last minute vacation trips this weekend.  Also, attendance was slightly down, but still good.  The band was sounding good, I was pretty pumped about the message and our folks responded well to it.  Yet, there were all of these bizarre technical problems.

First the air conditioner in the gymnasium we use at the YMCA went on the fritz.  It kept working - cooling the building down - however it was making a horrible noise.  We have stacks of sound equipment and we were almost drowned out by the sound of the air conditioner.

Secondly, our always-reliable Easy Worship software wasn’t reliable today.  It kept kicking out our saved worship program and reverting back to an old save.  None of the graphics, movie files or Scriputre references worked properly.  We kept having to reboot and limped through it.

Finally, the sound board was completely unreal.  There have been no problems with it over the last several months and then today it really went off the hook!  None of the built-in power amps (four 300-watt amps) were functionally properly and then the mids went out completely.  After tweaking it for a while we finally got everything back up and then the whole thing shut down.  No sound!  Out of sure divine inspiration our drummer plugged in a "dummy load" speaker and everything came back up . . . as long as the "dummy load" stayed plugged in.  In all of my years around sound systems (over 25 years to be exact), I have never seen anything like it!!!

Now comes the crazy part!  As soon as the service ended today everything but the loud air conditioner went back to working normally!!!  The spiritual attacks just keep stranger and stranger!