New Churches Podcast

Pastors and church planters feel the pinch of not having enough time. Host Clint Clifton talks with Todd Adkins and Jessica Thompson about the value of – and techniques for – organizing your week.

Building a Team from Scratch

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It’s getting harder and harder for pastors of new churches to have enough money to take care of their family, meet their obligations and survive in the cities God’s called them to reach. @ClintJClifton 

You’re probably spending way too much time doing versus developing. The most practical thing you can do is set aside less time for doing and more time for developing. @ToddAdkins

You need to be disciplined enough to know what you have time for. What five things do I need to accomplish this week?Don’t let other people’s needs and demands move you from what you feel God has on your plate to do this week. – Jessica Thompson

What are the things that only you can do? That’s the category where you need to be doing and developing. @ClintJClifton

For a church planter who hasn’t launched yet, the absolute most important thing you can be doing is developing people. When you hit the launch phase, you’re going to need all those people, and the stickiness of your plant depends on the people, not the programming. @ToddAdkins

Build your team with people who are willing to step out in faith and cast your vision, being able to communicate clearly what God has called your church to do, because that’s going to draw people to the Lord. – Jessica Thompson

Church planting feels a lot like Whac-A-Mole. There’s a lot of things going on on a lot of different fronts and you can get into this pattern of frenzy and feverishness. The truth is, if I’m trying to hit every head that pops up, I’m going to miss some important ones. @ClintJClifton

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Many church planters set out to reach people with the gospel but often find their new churches full of folks from other churches. Host Ed Stetzer talks with Heiden Ratner and Vance Pitman about the challenge of staying outwardly focused to reach people far from God.

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 Here’s a very practical tip for this idea of building bridges into the city: Every city has a city manager and every city manager has a list of problems on their desk that’s their responsibility to solve. Go meet your city manager, build a relationship, find out what of those items on that list you can take off the list. @VancePitman

I love the Major Ian Thomas quote: “The same life Jesus lived, he lives now through us.” If we’re allowing Christ to live in and through us, he’s focused on lost people. He’s seeking. He’s saving. @HeidenRatner

Engaging adults who don’t know Christ leads to some messy challenges, but we must encourage people to still value that. @EdStetzer

Yes, it’s messy when you when you reach people in a place like Vegas. But it’s also pure. There is a purity about the gospel from these new believers that is contagious. It creates a freshness in the body of Christ that is worth going after. @VancePitman

Have the authenticity to be yourself, not feeling like you have to be somebody else in their walk with Christ. Be you. Everybody’s got a unique leaning, unique wiring, and so we’re trying to help people champion the things that make you be authentically you in the body of Christ, and you’ll find your fit. @HeidenRatner

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Many pastors intend for their church to multiply, but very few actually start new churches. Host Clint Clifton talks with John Welborn about what churches that multiply do differently than those that don’t.

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Almost every church planter I’m interacting with intends for his church to multiply, yet very few of them are actually sending out and starting new churches. There’s a huge gap between intention and the practice, and that gap is how difficult it is and the things you have to do day-to-day in order to make it a reality. @ClintJClifton

At Salem, we lost over 50% of our church to relocations. We were put in a position to say if we don’t raise up new leaders, then we’re sunk. It’s not just a vision. It’s also something that’s in practical application on a week-to-week and month to-month basis. @JWWelborn

As a church planter, as you gather your team, crystallizing and communicating the vision that this new church is not just one new church, it tends to gather the sort of people that really resonate with a multiplying vision. Crystallize that vision from Day One. @ClintJClifton

You have to open your life because discipleship, as it relates to being a spiritual leader, is more than just a classroom informational setting. @JWWelborn

People can’t imagine themselves becoming what you are until it’s not mystical to them anymore, until they they can understand it and see how normal it is. @ClintJClifton

We always say to our church’s residents that we want to do church in such a way that the average Joe looks up at the stage and says, “I could totally do that.” @ClintJClifton

If you prioritize church multiplication as an essential element of the vision God has given, then it’s going to cost you something. We are making sacrifices to provide to each neighborhood what they need most, which is a gospel-preaching church. @JWWelborn

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Pastors are so overwhelmed with responsibilities that they often move the bar really low to having a maintenance mindset, rather than pursuing a vision of multiplication. Host Clint Clifton talks with John Welborn about how to move from maintenance to multiplication.

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When every decision is run through the filter of “How do I survive?” … it’s a killer for multiplication, for advancing the mission and the kingdom of God the way we’ve been called to do. @JWWelborn

The reality that churches are dying all around us and every church is going to die should create this category in our mind where we say multiplication is essential because our church isn’t going to be here forever. @ClintJClifton

The only hope is aggressive disciple-making, leadership development and church multiplication. @JWWelborn

One of the first steps to actually becoming good at multiplication is owning where you are as a church. @ClintJClifton

Advancing the kingdom is perfectly fine, but when you start trimming budgets to make room for resources, then you’ve got members, who are paying the bills, saying, “No, I don’t think so.” That’s where it gets real. @JWWelborn

The worst thing for us is that isolation causes us to to slip into survival and maintenance modes. But when we’re in community and able to talk to one another, we can combat the enemy’s voice in our life and focus our energy and attention on things we know are actually right. @ClintJClifton

Success in casting vision really is determined by how far down the organizational chart people are communicating that vision. @JWWelborn

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What happens in churches when pastors don’t properly plan for someone to succeed them? Host: Clint Clifton talks with Jess Thompson and Todd Adkins about the connection between developing leaders and successfully transitioning a plant to next-stage leadership.

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If you’re successful in planting a church, there will come a time when you’ll start to think, “I wonder if I’m the person to lead this thing to the next stage of growth?” @ClintJClifton

Churches have two choices: You can either build leaders or buy leaders. Our problem is we have gotten out of the habit of building leaders. @ToddAdkins

From what I’ve observed, it seems so much driven by the pastor who’s leaving and what God is doing in their life and how they’re preparing their church for that. How prepared is the church? How attached are they to the pastor? – Jessica Thompson

If you constantly develop people, you’ll find you will be able to multiply. When your time has come to transition out, you’ll be ready to do that in a way that helps the church be successful. @ClintJClifton

In the maturity and stability of the church long-term, it needs its primary voice to be in the shepherd-teacher category. When a church is started, it needs its primary voice to be apostolic. @ClintJClifton

Your legacy is really what happens after you leave. It’s not what you do; it’s who you develop. @ToddAdkins

An amazing amount of humility is needed for all involved – the leader you’ve developed and the thing that God is calling you to do next. – Jessica Thompson

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Raising funds for a church plant in the expensive urban core of a city poses many challenges – among them the task of financing the ministry. Host Ed Stetzer talks with James Roberson and Taylor Field about their planting experiences in New York City.

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The way we got our apartment was our sending church co-signed for us. It was 600 square feet and we paid close to $3,000 a month for that. — James Roberson

We call it the “F word.” No one wants to talk about finances but it’s really important. — Taylor Field

Play the cards you’re dealt and focus on that. People always ask, “How many sources do you have?” We say, “One source, many channels.” We do have many challenges but it’s one source: our Heavenly Father. — Taylor Field

Your confidence must be categorically in God, because if it’s not, then you’re going to be depending on Big Bucks Tabernacle to fund you. I literally had individual, single-parent moms give me more than huge name churches. — James Roberson

You can’t get into that corrosive mentality of “You owe me.” You’ve got to know that God called you and He will fund what He’s called you to. Once you’re convinced of that, no city can stop the call of God. — James Roberson

What we said was “Lord, we don’t want to be a sofa. We want want to be a launching pad.” One of the root words for “salvation” in the Hebrew is “make a space for.” Having a space helped us become a launching pad. — Taylor Field

It’s important for church planters, especially in the urban core, to look beyond our own self-interest as a church. — Taylor Field

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Even if we say growth is really not a congregation’s goal, there’s a subtle pressure for our churches to always be numerically larger. Host Clint Clifton talks with Jess Thompson and Todd Adkins about five advantages to staying relatively small.

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We obviously we want to continue to reach people with the gospel. However, there are some advantages to your local church being modest in size. @ClintJClifton

The advantages of staying small are numerous. You always hear the speedboat versus freight liner analogy. One is easier to maneuver than the other. @ToddAdkins

A big church has more resources to put into an initiative but in large churches there’s this hesitancy toward change or doing something new. I think it’s harder to pivot to try new things when there’s this hesitancy.  – Jess Thompson

When the lines of decision-making are very clear but they’re not very relational, it becomes a lot harder to do something outside the box. @ClintJClifton

Relational depth is the biggest bonus for small churches. That’s what we want spiritually – to be known, by our Creator, by each other. In large churches that’s hard to do.  – Jess Thompson

John Kotter says organizations start relational and nodal, then move to hierarchical. Legacy churches and organizations tend to have their lunch eaten by the upstarts, who are more relational. The secret sauce to stay relational and grow at the same time is to have both. @ToddAdkins

Unfortunately the larger and more established you get, you tend to be innovative where you should be static and static where you should be innovative. But smallness allows you to say, “Oh, I can take initiative here.” It’s easier to take risks. Church planting tends to just attract people who can see that way. @ToddAdkins

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The complex diversity of places like New York City poses challenges and creates opportunities for church planting. Host Ed Stetzer talks with James Roberson and Taylor Field about the missiology of planting in such an environment.

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New York City is seen as maybe the Mount Everest of church planting – a lot of folks have tried, a lot of plants have died. @EdStetzer

We sometimes say New York City is a not a melting pot, it’s a tossed salad. Where we started we rebuilt a synagogue. On one side is a “squat,” where people illegally occupied the building; on the other side there’s a luxury apartments. — Taylor Field

If you try to stop a person walking in New York, it’s like stopping a person mid-traffic in the South. — James Roberson

In more northeastern places, some of the most welcoming Christian folks – when they get changed, man, they get changed. It’s not cultural religion. @EdStetzer

Bonhoeffer says you can’t speak the words of God until you listen with the ears of God. The big thing is just to be a listener. Kindness crosses every culture. — Taylor Field

Trying to get them to understand the Calvary Road – suffering and trials – takes a long time in the city. You’ve come up here with a dream. God’s not really impressed with your dream. He wants to see you be sanctified and grow. — James Roberson

There’s also a missiological simplicity to New York City. Here the different people groups are all on top of each other. So there is that opportunity: every language, every tongue, everybody’s welcome. That could simplify things, rather than make it more complex. — Taylor Field

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