“If we don’t pay attention to the season of planting, it’s too late to try to manufacture a harvest that we didn’t plan for or plant for.” Meet Steve Stroope, Founding Pastor of Lakepointe Church in Rockwall, Texas. Packed with wisdom from the moment they press record, Andy dives in deep with Steve to better understand what he calls the Growth Gap and how to create leading indicators rather than focusing on goals that come from lagging indicators. In this episode, Steve unpacks the key profiles of church planters (as well as their launch teams), what drove success for Lakepointe, and the most important decisions he made along the way. 

Welcome to Episode 004 of The Unfair Advantage Podcast with Andy Wood.

EPISODE LINKS

Learn more about Strategic Launch Network

Rocket Fuel: The One Essential Combination That Will Get You More of What You Want from Your Business

Do ministry together! Three gatherings, nine planters, one cohesive journey. Checkout the Ascent Leader Church Planter Cohorts. Get more information today at: https://theascentleader.org/cohorts/ 

WHO IS STEVE STROOPE?

Steve Stroope is the Founding Pastor of Lakepointe Church, Rockwall, Texas. Under his leadership, the church grew to more than 13,000 in weekly attendance. In 2020, after 40 years as Lead Pastor, he transitioned into consulting, coaching and writing. He works as an Executive Coach to major corporations all across America. Steve has written 3 books and will be releasing his 4th in 2023, Leading by Letting Go.

SPONSORS

Thanks to our sponsor: Food For The Hungry.

Combine your church's heart for the poor and Food for the Hungry’s global experience at fh.org/churches.  

“One of the most dangerous things to happen to your church plant is for you to get to 100 people. Because now you have enough people in your church to distract you from the mission of your church.” Meet Sean Sears, Church Planter & Founding Pastor of Grace Church in Boston, MA. In this episode, Sean shares his deep passion for staying on mission as a church planter by continuously surrounding yourself with the people you’re trying to reach. He encourages planters that you don’t have to create momentum for your church, the Holy Spirit will do that… your job is to identify the barriers that are keeping you from finding that momentum and becoming a “barrier buster”. Self-proclaimed as “the most accidental church planter ever” this is an authentic conversation that will encourage you and reignite your mission for the kingdom. 

Welcome to Episode 003 of The Unfair Advantage Podcast with Andy Wood. 

EPISODE LINKS

Learn more about the Strategic Launch Network. 

Be on the lookout for catalytic relationships. One of the ways you may be called to invest in these relationships is by joining the first ever Ascent Leader Church Planter Cohort. Get more information today at: https://theascentleader.org/cohorts/ 

WHO IS SEAN SEARS?

Sean and Billie started Grace Church in 2005 with 3 Christian college students and their spiritually disconnected neighbors across the street. Grace Church planted their first church in 2009 and has planted an additional eight churches and partnered with another twenty-ish. Sean’s side hustle is real estate, his hobby is old man basketball at the Y and he’s a sucker for documentaries. 

SPONSORS

Thanks to our sponsor: Food For The Hungry.

Combine your church's heart for the poor and Food for the Hungry’s global experience at fh.org/churches.  

“There’s shared vision or there’s vision that’s shared.” Meet Ray Johnston, Founding Pastor of Bayside Church in Sacramento. We asked Ray to come on an episode of the podcast to share his wisdom on church planting… we should have asked him to come on five! Planters, Ray’s knowledge is vast… be ready to take quick notes! In this episode, Ray challenges planters on how to lead with vision, how to create momentum in your plant, and how to determine which voices will be the loudest on your journey. He encourages, “Planters need to be really discerning about who they are listening to. Ask yourself, “What are the outcomes I’m looking for?” Once you can define those outcomes, you can better manage the millions of tools to help you get there.”  

Welcome to Episode 002 of The Unfair Advantage Podcast with Andy Wood. 

INSIGHTS FROM RAY

The Story Behind the Story: Bayside Church, 1996

• You have to be crazy to be a pastor. There’s too much attention, affection, and attack. I didn’t want to be a pastor. 
• Nothing great ever happens without fresh vision. Fresh vision comes to people who have hope. To get hope, you have to recharge your spiritual batteries. 
• Our goal was to own Christmas, Easter, and kids. When we launched Bayside, we set out to own these three things. That would have defined success for us. 
• Whoever wins the kids wins. Wins your community, wins the future, wins the battle for values. 

To Preview or Not To Preview

• All church plants need to go through four critical stages of planting. Each of these stages should be 3-6 month long. 
• 3 out of 5 new church plants fail, primarily because of low birth weight. Don’t plant too fast. 
• The 4 stages of church plants:
• Stage 1 - Core Group Gathering 
• Stage 2 - Core Group Development - train your core group, start assigning roles and responsibilities
• Stage 3 - Preliminary Worship
• Stage 4 - Grand Opening, Public Worship
• Too many churches go from Stage 1 to Stage 4. 
• We did preview services to draft people into the launch team. 
• Planters need to be really discerning about who they are listening to. Ask yourself, “what are the outcomes I’m looking for?” Once you can define those outcomes, you can better manage the millions of tools to help you get there. 

“Secrets” of Church Planting

• Creating momentum - people support what they help create. 
• There’s shared vision or there’s vision that’s shared. 
• 5 questions we asked 100 of our core leaders in the church: 
• What should we do in the next 1-2 years to reach our community for Christ?
• What are we going to do to disciple our people? How do we grow our people spiritually? 
• How do we get people who are seeking God to serve God?
• What are we going to do to unleash passion in our community and around the world? 
• Got any dreams? 
• Most people can’t dream what they haven’t seen. They only know the church from what they’ve seen and experienced in the past. Show them a church that will help them dream big about theirs. 

Am I the right leader to plant a church? 

• Go do assessment center testing
• Disc profiles - high I or high D are ideal church planters
• If you’re wired to lead, you reach for one of 4 things first in the morning: a steering wheel to lead and direct, a microphone to speak, people to care and develop them, a computer to organize it all in a God-honoring way. Church planting tends to do better if the leader is a microphone, steering wheel person who does pretty well with people. 
• Do most what you do best. Too many people climb the wrong ladder only to realize it’s the wrong ladder. 

EPISODE LINKS

Find your top 5 core strengths - Gallup StrengthsFinders 

Thrive Conference - May 5th & 6th - Dream Again with Bob Goff

Text “refuel” to 56316 for a daily resource from Bayside 

Be on the lookout for catalytic relationships. One of the ways you may be called to invest in these relationships is by joining the first ever Ascent Leader Church Planter Cohort. Get more information today at: https://theascentleader.org/cohorts/ 

WHO IS RAY JOHNSTON?

Ray Johnston is the founder of Bayside Church in the Sacramento, California area, which has grown to one of the largest congregations in the nation with more than 20,000 people gathering every weekend, and the founder of Thrive Communications and Thrive Churches International (TCI), which host the largest pastors and church staff conferences in the western United States.

A master communicator, Ray is well known for his books The Hope Quotient, and Jesus Called. He has spoken face to face to more than 2 million people over the past 45 years. He has also served in an “interim'' pastoral role to help hurting congregations that range from smaller local churches to megachurches.

Ray has a rich and varied background as a university and graduate-school professor, speaker, and writer, and. A graduate of Azusa Pacific University and Fuller Theological Seminary, he was Chairman of the Department of Youth Ministry at North Park College, an adjunct professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and is a veteran of both youth and adult ministry, having crisscrossed the nation for years as a top instructor for Youth Specialties.

Ray and Carol Johnston have been married for almost 40 years, have four adult children, and a growing number of grandchildren.

To learn more, visit:

• www.RayJohnston.com
• Conference: www.ThriveConference.org
• Twitter: @rayjohnston
• Instagram: @rayjohnston77
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ray.johnston.3150?fref=ts
• Blog: www.RayJohnston.com

SPONSOR

Thanks to our sponsor: Food For The Hungry.

Combine your church's heart for the poor and Food for the Hungry’s global experience at fh.org/churches.  

“The difference between 45 hours a week and 65 hours is not necessarily more church growth, it’s just an unhealthy leader.” Meet Carey Nieuwhof, entrepreneur, author, speaker, and church planter. On the maiden voyage of The Unfair Advantage podcast, we’ve set the bar high. Carey shares the story behind the story of his church plant, unpacks the difference between great managers and great leaders, and gets vulnerable and authentic about what the Carey today would tell twenty-five year old Carey just getting started in the church world. You won’t want to miss it. 

Welcome to the very first episode of The Unfair Advantage Podcast with Andy Wood. 

INSIGHTS FROM CAREY

• The story behind the story: Connexus Church launch, November 2007
• Carey began serving in ministry in Central Ontario in 1995 and recounts the early days of his church plant. 
• You can do more with 300 aligned people than 3,000 aligned people.
• When you plant, you want people around you who believe nothing is impossible with God. 
• Carey shares, “I wasn’t particularly innovative, I just did attractional church years before anyone else in our community. We were about 5-10 years ahead of anyone else.” 

• Great managers vs. great leaders: what's the difference?
• Great leaders have an entrepreneurial zeal 
• Managers manage what was already built. Leaders create something out of nothing. 
• What in your life have you gone from nothing to something on? If you don’t have that story, you may not be right for church planting. 
• “If you don’t have a good reason to plant a church, that’s a good reason to not plant a church.”

• The advantage of being in a room with other leaders
• When I first planted, I didn’t have colleagues or peers as resources, I had books. 
• Cohorts allow you to get insider information. You now have access to the people on stage at the conferences you’ve been attending for years. You can ask your questions, you can get answers. It’s gold. 
• Most of us really align ourselves by affinity, not by denomination. 
• If you have the opportunity to go to a cohort as a church planter, do it. 

• What would Carey say today to a twenty-five year old Carey? 
• Your value isn’t tied up in what you produce. 
• There’s another way to get the results you want, but it’s probably not something you would naturally do. 
• You're gonna push so hard and drive so hard, and work is going to provide so much value for you, you’re probably going to mess up your 30’s and miss some great moments with your kids. 
• The difference between 45 hours a week and 65 hours is not necessarily more church growth, it’s just an unhealthy leader. 

EPISODE LINKS

Whether you’re overwhelmed, overworked or overcommitted, At Your Best is the strategy to get your time, energy and priorities working in your favor. Get a copy of Carey’s most recent book – At Your Best: How to Get Time, Energy, and Priorities Working in Your Favor

Be on the lookout for catalytic relationships. One of the ways you may be called to invest in these relationships is by joining the first ever Ascent Leader Church Planter Cohort. Get more information today at: https://theascentleader.org/cohorts/ 

WHO IS CAREY NIEUWHOF?

Carey Nieuwhof is a best-selling leadership author, speaker, podcaster, former attorney, and church planter. He hosts one of today’s most influential leadership podcasts, and his online content is accessed by leaders over 1.5 million times a month. He speaks to leaders around the world about leadership, change, and personal growth. 

His best-selling book, At Your Best: How to Get Time, Energy, and Priorities Working in Your Favor, is designed to help every leader escape stress and begin living at a sustainable pace and has been profiled by Forbes, Fast Company, and Business Insider. 

Careynieuwhof.com 

Twitter & Facebook: @cnieuwhof | Instagram & TikTok: @careynieuwhof

SPONSOR



Thanks to our sponsor: Food For The Hungry.

Combine your church's heart for the poor and Food for the Hungry’s global experience at fh.org/churches.