Tony Wheeler dot Net

Having just spent the better part of last week around 2800 people who aim to return to their home turf and plant churches, I have a lot of stuff swimming around in my head that I’m dealing with.  Prior to last week, I’ve kind of been quiet.  I’d not listened to too many podcasts, read too many Christian type books, surfed many blogs or really thought about what God sent us here to do.  I think that was good for my soul.

Having met and spent some time with some people who are really kicking some serious tail, I’ve got a fire in my belly.  I’m not ready to lay it all out here just yet, but hold on to your britches.  I’m really not a hyped up kind of guy.  There are really few things that make me get really excited — the kind of excited where you jump up and down and get all silly.  God’s been planting seeds in me for a couple of years…those seeds are about to sprout and that makes me excited.
So, all that said, I was doing a little blog reading today and my blogging friend, Ben Arment, had a great post about the difference between a church planter’s first and second church plant.  Now I know that I have never been a lead guy in a church plant, but I’ve done various things at various levels in several plants over the years, so I can feel where Ben is coming from.  The huge thing that Ben talked about was a shift in priorities.  I especially think that in the coming years, the shift from any one ‘church’ or denomination or network to the Church of Jesus Christ will be HUGE.  With declining numbers of people in pews, the economy tightening people’s budgets, and disinterest in organized religion, we are going to have to band together.  Things will have to change.  I’m not saying that God won’t still build his kingdom — that really is ultimately his job, he just invites us along for the ride– but we are commanded to go into all the earth and make disciples, so we should probably be doing that. You should head on over to Ben’s blog and check out what he has to say.  He is a great blogger, marketer and Starbucks fanatic.  I think he and Scott Hodge have kept Starbucks afloat while Howard was away.

(You know, it is funny, now that I have to drive at least 10 miles to get to a Starbucks, I want it daily.  I could drink an Venti-sugar-free-hazlenut-skinny-iced-latte pretty much any time of the day.  I’d much rather have something from a local joint, but alas House Blend is like 25 miles away.  Love you guys, but can’t make that trek for a latte! Wow, I’ll end the parenthetical sidebar now.)

Rick Warren was the final speaker at the Exponential Conference.  I’ve always liked the guy, but I developed a deep respect for him a couple years ago when I was listening to an interview he did with the Catalyst Podcast.  The guy is all heart, a heart to see the Kingdom of God advance and impact the world.  He did mention that he is no longer being billed as the anti-Christ, he is now simply a false prophet.  Oprah is evidently the new anti-Christ.  The dude is just a church planter is mega church pastor’s clothes.  He probably doesn’t even think of himself as a mega church pastor, especially when he is backstage playing ‘tubby tubby’ with his grandkids.  The guy is just a wealth of wisdom.  I’ve read his books, I even have a copy of his first book, “Rick Warren’s Bible Study Methods.”  As you might imagine, this book is pretty simple, so that ANYONE can learn to study the Bible. Following you’ll get a recap of some of the things that Rick had to say.  Rick, just want to thank you for investing in other pastors and loving God more than yourself.

• Saddleback history. Crazy idea of moving from TX to CA. “I believe in God and I believe in you, so lets go.” If Kay would have said no, there would be a lot of stuff not done. God uses wives to make us holy, not happy. Many times she is the Holy Spirit speaking to you.  (These words made me cry.  I have heard Rick talk about this before, but it is God’s honest truth in my life.  We would not be where we are right now without my wife.  She trusts and loves God more than I ever will and God is definitely using her to make me holy.)

• Comparing ourselves to others will severely limit what God wants to do with us and through us. God will not ask us how come we aren’t more like so and so. He will, however ask us why we weren’t more like ourselves.

Reproducing Churches

1.Never stop growing personally. Growing churches require growing pastors. You can never take a church where you’ve never been yourself. You cannot ask other people to have YOUR faith in God. The size of your vision must exponentially grow along with your personal growth. Viewing God’s plan as a scroll…each piece is unrolled a bit at a time. Ignore the critics and the compliments…chew on them but don’t swallow.

2.Focus on making disciples. Focus on maturity and development. Focus on building leaders. Anyone can be great for a short time…make disciples! It take time if it is going to be an oak and not a mushroom. Turning members into missionaries.

3.Have to pay attention to your family. Don’t leave your own vineyard unattended while tending other’s vineyards. Build your family first!

4.Are you totally surrendered to the word and will of God in your life?

5.Develop Kingdom mindset. God’s agenda for the world is much larger than your church, your network, your denomination. We are on the same team. Competition is not other churches, it is the world, the flesh and the devil.

What is God’s agenda? Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done….

Kingdom is inevitable. Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached to all the nations, then the Kingdom will come.

Whose church is it? If it is Jesus’ church, then HE will build it. Focus on building people. Purposes of God must be done in order to accomplish this. A great commitment to the great commandment and great commission will grow a great church/community/company.

Had a great day today.  Heard from Alan Hirsch…he said that many Christians need a kick in the ass.  Don’t shoot the me, I’m only the messenger.  He is right.  I pretty much had some things rocked in my world today.  I’ve got notes, but they aren’t with me and my head is swimming in a sea of ideas and emotion.  I was moved many times today by stories that many of the guys told.  Vince Antonucci, a dude who at 20 years old didn’t know Jesus from Adam, is a church planter in Virginia Beach.  The guy loves people that are far from God.  I picked up a copy of his book, “I Became a Christian and All I Got was this Lousy T-Shirt”…good read so far.  David Putman told some stories about losing his religion and recapturing the way of Jesus.  Solid guy, for sure.

I’m going to be doing some serious processing about what is going on in my heart and life.  I’m thinking a lot about what it is that we are here for.  I know for certain that we are here for a reason…just not sure what that means in terms of church planting/starting/birthing etc.  Some of you may think that this should have been done already, but let me ask you if you have ever cast a vision for a people group that you live across the country from?  Or better yet, how many people go into foreign missions with everything all set up already?  God is going to do some amazing things in us and through us…That I’m certain of.

Good start to the conference. For those that don’t know, Exponential is a church planting conference that has gone on for a few years now. It has grown from about 200 attendees to nearly 3000 this year. It is definitely a gathering for church geeks. Ran into people from all over the country that I know and know of. Heard from Andy Stanley today and also sat in on a workshop given by the Revealnow folks. Pretty interesting stuff. Bummed that I missed the Blogging breakout with Scott Hodge, Todd Rhodes and Chris Elrod. I think those guys had more fun backstage with Ed Stetzer’s Blackberry than anything else. Talk about a blogging buzz….