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Right now I’m sitting in the next to last Church Planter’s Coaching Network meeting.

Today we’re going to discuss the last of the five “Best Practices” - Financing the Mission.

Churchplanters.com teaches that the five “Best Practices” are:

1. Be mean about the vision
2. Think team
3. Nurture vitality
4. Re-think discipleship
5. Finance the mission

You can read more about these practices here.

If you’re interested in being a part of this monthly coaching network, you can find out how here.

The thing about these practices is that they are not original to churchplanters.com or any other organization. These are simply the practices that healthy, successful pastors and leaders are embracing and living out.

I love it that these guys have identified these “best practices”, model them, and teach them to pastors and leaders everywhere.

Gosh, it’s almost “Go-Time” for us! I can’t wait! So much is happening so quickly that occasionally I like to write it down to keep it straight; it also serves as a journal for us to look back on someday.

• We have ten people from Mountain Lake Church signed up to come to Cincinnati on December 4-7. They will help us serve the community, publicize the Walls Down Christmas Eve service, and serve the place where we are meeting as a church. Thanks to all of you who are making this trip!

• In a few weeks Sherri and I are going to have our first weekend alone in FIVE YEARS! My parents are going to take “The Ladies” for a weekend and we’re going to get away! Yahoo!

• On June 1-10 we are headed to Cincinnati to find a place to live! We currently have several agents and friends keeping their eyes open for houses, or trailers if things get bad! We have decided to rent for the first little while. This gives us some flexibility and time to gain a full understanding of the area and determine where we’re going to live before we settle in for good. Please pray for God’s favor during these next few weeks.

• On June 16-17 Sherri and I are going to be meeting with ARC representatives. We will be assessed and interviewed for these two days. After these two days, if both ARC and we are agreed, we will join this network of churches as a planter. This is NOT a denomination. It is simply a network of churches connected by a single vision of helping people find Jesus. Their mission is to “create a resource rich environment for church planters.”

• I have been in conversation with a couple of Free Methodist Bishops concerning our relationship with the Free Methodist Church. Currently I am an ordained elder in the FM church. Over this last year I have been appointed by the FM church to learn from some of the best church planters in the country… planters who are from other denominations. Over this year I have had the privilege of serving with some great leaders from all kinds of different churches. It has been a wonderful opportunity to network and see life and ministry from a fresh perspective. As we move ahead I do not want to lose any of these connections based solely on denominational affiliation, therefore we are in the midst of discussion with our leaders. I am excited about these discussions with my leaders and look forward to next-steps!

• Rindy and I continue to work on the Walls Down systems. We have a separate blog dedicated to this effort. You can see how our systems are developing here. Feel free to take any and everything we have up here. That’s what we have done! By the way, Rindy wrote a couple of great blog posts about systems: Systems for Dummies - Part 1 & Systems for Dummies - Part 2.

• June 29th is the last “official” day of our church planting residency. We will be wrapping everything up and moving to Cincinnati during the first couple of weeks in July.

So there it is… some waddup! Thanks for traveling with us on this journey!

Sherri and I keep a “Domestic Detail” list. It is simply a breakdown of all of the chores to be done around the house with a name attached to each chore. It’s really not a very “sexy” list so we jazzed it up a bit with a cool name.

Yesterday I heard a funny take on the whole “Domestic Detail” thing by the extremely funny, Jeff Foxworthy,

Whatever cleaning goes on on the planet, women do 99% of it. But see, women are not as proud of their 99% as men are of our one! We clean something up, we’re gonna talk about it all year long. It might be on the news, you don’t know. A woman could be out re-paving the driveway. Men will actually get up, go outside and say, “Hey baby! Man it’s hot as hell out here! Look, don’t worry about emptyin’ that ashtray in the den, I done got it, all right? Did it for you, sweet pea. I’m gonna take a nap now.”

Here’s to all the men who engage in “Domestic Detail” and the 1% that we proudly execute!

Reading from Vance Trimble’s biography of Sam Walton this morning I found a great description of what keeps great leaders great.

David Glass, who would someday become the CEO of Wal-Mart, had just watched Sam Walton pull off a TERRIBLE store opening in Harrison, Arkansas. After observing the fiasco, he said, “It was the worst retail store I had ever seen”, and walked away from Walton’s offer of employment.

After returning, and ultimately becoming the CEO, he said of Walton,

The thing that I underestimated about Sam is that he has an overriding something in him that causes him to improve every day. That’s not difficult when you have something as bad as he had in Harrison, but sometimes you achieve success and say, “Boy, now I got it like I want it. Now I can lay back a little and enjoy it.” Sam has never done that. As long as I have known him, he has never gotten to the point where he is comfortable with who he is or how we are doing.

Great leaders/people perpetuate greatness by maintaining a constant state of evolution.

Last night Jeff and I had a great dinner, met a lot of new friends, and heard some exciting stories about how God is working in and through the local church across the nation.

As we sat with the guys from ARC three themes stood out:

1. These are generous people. From the moment we walked in until the moment we left, they were giving us stuff.
2. These are humble people. God is doing exceptional things in and around them and they are quick to reflect the glory and honor back to Him.
3. These are people who recognize the most important element in the life of the church- the power of the Holy Spirit. We have all read, learned, discussed, and implemented best practices in the church, our leadership, our staffing strategies, etc. but at the end of the day the make-or-break factor is the presence of God in and through our ministries. These guys started off talking about this last night and it was a common theme throughout the evening.

I’m looking forward to a day of learning and networking with some new friends.

Today Jeff and I are leaving “on a jet plane” for Texas. There we will be meeting with a group of pastors from ARC (Association of Related Churches).

Our purpose is two-fold: networking with some guys who are getting it done and fundraising.

One of the great experiences I have had over these last months is the beauty of networking. It’s so exciting to see men and women from all over the world, from all sorts of denominations, and with all sorts of methodologies coming together for one grand cause… to clear away the religious mess and help people discover Jesus.

More later…

Nelson Searcy has finally gotten into the blogosphere. He is a systems genius and someone that I am constantly learning from. He has a couple of posts worth checking out:

1. A free overview of systems in the church
2. When to challenge the system is a great post in which Nelson identifies three times to review and revise your systems

Chunks Corbett, the executive pastor at Elevation Church writes a great post in which he discusses how they are continually rethinking and revising their meeting format. Every lead pastor should read this. Click here to read The “Bored” Meeting.

You should also check out:

• Michael Lukaszewski’s constant output of systems insights at Behind the Leaf.
• Bill Reichart’s “other blog” called Ministry Best Practices.

OK, enough systems stuff for one night… I’m outa here!

My friend Chris Reeder has asked the question, “What advice would you give to a guy that has been called into church planting, but sometimes feels that he has no idea what he is doing?”

He asked a bunch of church planters and soon-to-be church planters what they thought.

So far the list includes:

• Pete Wilson
• Dave Anderson
• Paul Peterson (that’s me)
• Dustin Willis
• Jay Hardwick
• JR Lee
• Chris Elrod

If you’re thinking about planting a church, or you’re fresh into it you’re going to want to check out these posts!

Thanks Chris for putting this together.

There is no greater responsibility in this life than shaping a person. If you are a parent you have this responsibility

Sherri and I have been praying, thinking, and talking about the characteristics we want our children to possess. We have our list.

While we understand that each child is different and will live out these characteristics with their own style, we still want to train them to live out these character traits:

1. Courage
2. Respect
3. Responsibility
4. Kindness
5. Optimism
6. Encourager
7. Perseverance
8. Honesty
9. Good stewards
10. Helpful

Four ways we are teaching/instilling these characteristics:

• Model the way. If our children see Sherri and me living these characteristics, it will be much easier for them to comprehend and embrace them as a way of life. DISCLAIMER: we have not mastered these traits! They are evolving in us just as they are in our children! The point is that we want to model them for “The Ladies” so that they will have a sense of what it looks like to be helpful, optimistic, etc.

• Encourage their hearts. Every time we see our kids living out one of these characteristics we MUST recognize and affirm them! This simply calls for an awareness on our part as parents. Here’s the kicker… when we get too busy, we run right past our kids living out these characteristics and miss the opportunity to reinforce them!

• Enable them. We have to give them every opportunity to live out these characteristics. If we want them to be responsible we have to model responsibility, give them responsibility, and encourage and affirm them when they are responsible! Right now Reagan is experimenting with the jungle gym at the park. It provides us with a great opportunity to “enable” courage as she swings and climbs. Someday this won’t work, but for now it provides a way to enable her to be courageous.

• Share the vision. We have to keep these characteristics in front of our children! A few of the ways that we are doing this include: telling stories that feature these characteristics, modeling the way, using these words (e.g. persevere, respectful, etc.), celebrating when they live out these characteristics, etc. We must keep reminding them of what we want and helping them envision what it looks like to live out these characteristics.

How’s it going?

Well, for starters we realize that the training process never stops; it’s never static! It’s always evolving! In other words, we are always creating new ways to reinforce and teach the same concepts!

Another big issue, particularly for me, is the issue of modeling the way… showing “The Ladies” through my life, what it looks like to be kind, helpful, etc. It keeps me on my toes when I know I’ve got four little girls watching.

I’m working on my storytelling skills. To be frank, my storytelling abilities suck. I’m working on finding and creatively telling good stories that highlight these various characteristics.

I pray to God that someday our girls will grow up and live out these ten characteristics, and I know that the likelihood of this happening is much greater when we have a plan and work the plan.

I hear a lot of talk these days that goes something like this, “Just be who you are.”

I’ll be honest with you, if I stay who I am I’ll never be who I want to be.

The more I read and hear the stories of people, and the more I look at my own life the more I realize that who we are is a consequence of who we model ourselves after.

For instance…

Sam Walton’s retail philosophy was largely shaped by J.C. Penney, his employer for several years as a youth. Penny referred to his employees as “Associates.” Guess how Wal-Mart refers to their employees? Associates. J.C. Penny forbid his employees to date one another… Wal-Mart does too. J.C. Penny found their strength in small towns and smaller cities… Wal-Mart does too. In fact, Vance H. Trimble writes in his biography of Walton that, “[Walton] would borrow John Cash Penny’s whole concept of how to succeed by putting customer satisfaction ahead of profit.” The bottom line is that if Walton had not been exposed to and modeled after J.C. Penny there may never have been a Wal-Mart.

Recently I heard Brian Tome, the pastor of Crossroads Church in Cincinnati, give a fresh spin on this that has really captured my attention. He says that the leadership process unfolds like this:

• You notice something you like (in Walton’s case it was retail)
• You copy someone who is doing what you like in a way that you like (in Walton’s case it was J.C. Penny)
• You start to innovate

In other words, it’s not a bad thing to model your life, leadership approach, business strategy, parenting philosophy, etc. after someone you admire who is doing what you want to do. The great thing is that as you start imitating them you will become comfortable and begin innovating and soon you will have your own style, look, philosophy, strategy, etc.

So what’s the point of this post? The point is this, you are most likely to find your style or your “way of doing things” when you:

• Imitate someone who is doing what you want to do
• Innovate along the way making adjustments to reflect your strengths, weaknesses, and ideas
• Initiate a new way of doing things after a series of trials and errors called innovation

So there it is! Go start your personal evolution by finding someone to imitate!