The Journey to here: "The Calling"

Planting a church is a pretty confusing thing! Once the news was out, several people asked me "so, what do you do, go to Tennessee and buy a lot?" (or something like that). To be honest, when Sheila and I said "yes" to what we believed to be God's calling on our lives, we didn't know much more than that. But, over the past six or so months, God has provided a lot of clarification (and a whole lot of new questions) for us!

I know that some of you are very curious about what is involved in "planting" a new church. So, for the next few posts, I would like to walk you through a little of our journey to date (and let you in on some things for the future).

"THE CALLING" (God's will should not be interpreted circumstantially, but we can't ignore circumstances in interpreting God's will.)

Sheila and I have talked about the idea of planting a church for about 8 or 9 years now. Actually, we seriously entertained the idea before we came to New Hope 7 years ago this December. At that time, it became obvious to me that there was much I needed to grow through both in skill and maturity before God would be able to make the most from how He has gifted me.

Over these years, we have felt a tugging at our heart toward this idea, but have had almost NO IDEA what was involved in planting a church. A number of times, we considered it only to be unified under an answer of "not yet."

This past year has been an amazing journey. For some time, I had been feeling that "tugging" again. As my role at New Hope has changed, I have seen God work toward developing passions and experiences that have worked to clarify His direction in our lives.

This past Spring, God really moved in our lives. For Spring Break, we traveled down to Myrtle Beach, SC making our usual stop in Lynchburg, VA to see friends. These particular friends have been a significant part of our lives (particularly since we had investigated the idea of starting a church with them several times.) As we were leaving, Sheila said "if you are waiting on them to go forward in planting a church, I am getting the feeling that we should stop waiting." talk about a breakthorough moment!

The following months were a total whilwind. We have felt, many times, like God was dropping breadcrumbs for us to pick up as He led us to this end. It has been an amazing ride! Here are a few of the "breadcrumbs" along the way:

• Our Community Group (aka "Home Group") Over the past 4 years, these people have been some of the most significant voices of friendship and direction in our lives! This past year, we did a short study on how/why we should be broken hearted for the lost and how to share our faith in Christ. This study, and the growth of those in our group, was the foundation for God to move in our lives.
• The "Fearless" series Every week, as George was preaching, Sheila and I would sincerely understand the exact same calling related to our future. Many times, one of us would grab the other's hand and squeez like we were on the ride of our lives (I think that we are). Frankly, we were getting a bit worn out from God speaking so clearly, I really had no intentions of being convicted the 2 weeks that I preached during that series... no such luck! The David and Goliath sermon has served as the basic analogy for this endevor (maybe you have heard about something called the "economy"... but that's a post for another time)
• "Orange Conference" For months, our children and student minstry staff had been planning a trip to Atlanta for a training event for children and student workers. I was looking forward to taking a break from hearing God working toward calling us to plant a church - I figured a family ministry conference would be a safe place. Man, was I wrong... speaker after speaker challenged me (like I was the only person in the room) to move forward in faith. At one point, I actually wanted to leave the room because the feeling was so strong!

Countless other conversations, studies of Scripture, sermons, songs and much more have all been moments of affirmation that God is in and through this whole thing! I am looking forward to helping all of us better understand what the future holds for us... and how we got here...

Here are a couple of "previews" of posts to come...

• "Investigation" (finding partners in planting)
• "Assessment" (3 days of grueling interviews)
• "Organization" (how effective, successful churches are planted with Stadia)
• "Funding" (how we are going to see all of this happen in the next few years)

Anxious and sad at the same time...

Today was a difficult day. I am confident that the direction God is calling us is the best place for us to be, but that doesn't mean that it's easy! Over the last seven years, we have developed so many significant relationships with students and adults here in NW Ohio! Walking around the foyer talking with people today made me realize a portion of how difficult it is going to be to load a moving truck and leave for TN in a few short months!

On the other hand, I can't wait to get moving! I have never been a patient person - once I see the potential to get something rolling, I want to get moving! I have been greatly blessed with a team of great couples in Jackson who are anxiously awaiting the point when we are on site and moving. We are looking forward to getting connected to those families and beginning the enormous task in front of us!

I have often heard the term "bitter-sweet," but I don't know that I have understood it as keenly as I have today. I assume that every church planter goes through this kind of emotion - torn between comfort and calling - - between what is and what could be - - between those we love and those we will. The thing that will keep us moving forward is the simple truth that there are people in and around Jackson, TN that we are called to help take their "next step" toward Christ - it doesn't just look good on paper as a mission statement, it really is what we have been about for the last 7 years... we are just proving that we mean it!

Pray for us! Here are a couple of specifics:

• Focus. There is a great deal to be accomplished both in Jackson and here at New Hope. My hope is that, through prayer, we will be able to do both preparation and effort related to MOMENTUM here.
• Funds. This is the worst possible time to need to raise money for something like this - pray that God will raise up champions who will sacrifice for the cause of the Gospel. (I have another post that I have been working on for this one... incredible amounts of God's glory could be seen through this uphill battle!)
• Family. Sheila and the girls are beginning the transition well. As the weeks and months roll on, that will become increasingly difficult. Pray for each of us as we simply "edit" the way that we relate to those we love around here. Also, pray for the sale of our home (and the timing).

I would WELCOME your comments below! Feel free to write anything... something you love - - something you hate - - you can even write out your prayer... if you do that kind of thing, we all benefit!

Jeremy

Plans for the future

I remember exactly where I was sitting one of my first weeks at New Hope when I heard Pastor George say that one of his goals in life was to "go to Heaven one day and take as many people as possible with me." That day, and others like it, changed me forever! For 16 years, I have challenged students and adults to listen closely to God's call on their life and "get in where they fit in." I would be a hypocrite if I did not do the same!

Yesterday afternoon, we announced a couple of "staff transitions" to the ministry team (staff) before I shared that same information with our 30+ student minsitry leaders and nearly 200 students last night at "The Edge." (the room is still a mess :-) As many of you have come to understand through both facebook and the letter that New Hope people have/will receive today, I am in fact following God's call on my life to move to Jackson, TN to start a new church! We are extremely excited (and sad) to see what God is going to do!

Over the coming months, I will focus my attention on completing the campaign we have launched to see 80% of our church go through FINANCIAL PEACE UNIVERSTIY (that's nearly 700 people guys - register now if you haven't already!!!). This morning, I met with our team of volunteers who are heading that effort up to ensure that we keep our eye on the ball - - people's financial peace hangs in the balance! I am glad to say that our meeting was successful and we are united in our desire to see my last project here at New Hope be a great success!

During these coming months (before we move in late December), there is also a great deal of work that will need to be done to prepare the way for what God is going to do in Jackson! We are excited about this opportunity because we know that this is our opportunity not to create another church for "church people", but to reach those who do not yet know Christ! A while back, a friend asked me "why Jackson?" after I thought about it, I decided" "Why not? When we get to Heaven, God isn't going to ask us where we came from." After months of investigation and prayer, Sheila and I are certain that God is calling us to plant His Church in Jackson. We are confident that God has pre-determined a significant number of people to be reached with the unbelievable message of God's rediculous love for us! (I need to stop here or I will start preaching) :-)

Anyway, the question is certainly being raised (hasn't facebook changed the world?) about what New Hope will be like "without Jeremy." I want you to know that I cannot imagine a better time to be at New Hope Community Church! I know (first hand) that we as an Elder Team are holding the filling of these two full-time positions (the other relates to another staff person - I will allow you to read that in the letter) as the absolute HIGHEST PRIORITY! We all need to keep our eye on the simple truth that the Church is that for which Christ died! We need to remember that God reassigns His team as He sees fit and I am confident - moreso, POSITIVE - that God has already began to work in the heart of the men that HE has for these positions! These men will be better fits and more effective than we are and will do their part to take this church to the next level of effectiveness! Seriously, discouragement at this point is EXACTLY what Satan wants... DON'T GIVE IN!

For those of you who are friends of mine from around the country, I am sorry to have kept you in the dark (particularly last night as you begged for details), there is simply far too much information to post in a facebook status (and twitter limits me to 140 characters anyway).I am so thankful for each of you and what you meant to our family! We are looking forward to a great future with New Hope - our relationship will not end here! We are working on the details of a continued partnership for the years to come as this church continues to reach "beyond our walls" to those outside a relationship with Christ - - even if they live in Jackson, TN!

There is much more to cover, but status updates (and future notes) will likely make those more clear.Thank you all for your kind words, support and most of all....PRAYER!!!!!!

Jeremy

Quotes from Orange 2009... so far

"Serving is the calling of every believer - volunteers aren't here to help us pastors do our job, we are here to help volunteers do their job" Stuart Hall

People will do what you INspect, not necessarrily what you EXpect... Applications for leadership... Ministry...parenting... (conglomeration of stuff I learned yesterday)

"We never look more like Christ than when we are rescuing!" Francis Chan

God isn't interested as much in our perfection as He is in using broken people to tell His story of redemption & restoration - Reggie Joiner

Every generation needs a revolution! Every revolution is built by volunteers!! Anyone?

Jim Wideman... "Every church has problems - pick the church with the set of problems you want to solve and start making it happen"

Jim Wideman... "Do when you're small what you will need to do when you are large and you will grow to be large" systems are the key!

Dan Reiland... "Make mistakes, make lots of mistakes, make big mistakes - but don't make the same mistake twice... LEARN from mistakes!"

Leadership in the Making: "Vision"

Over the past few weeks, I have given much thought to the part the "vision leadership" plays in the role of Church leadership.

As I think back over years of leadership with people, I see many times where I led with vision only to see absolutely NOTHING happen. I remember casting vision for a group of students at Cline Avenue Baptist Church - - painting this grand picture of how things should be in our ministry to students. When they didn't respond, I abandoned ship.

Other times, I have seen the vision that God was leading us toward explode! On most recent years, I can plainly see how God's vision and direction communicated clearly and supported by an incredible team of volunteers has helped our student ministry grow from 50 to 150!

So, lest I forget the things that I told Nate yesterday, I want to write them down... btw- I am not saying that i have this figured out - or for that fact, that I always do this right... just trying to lead and learn at the same time.

VISION COMES FROM GOD.

Every vision that I have ever communicated that has actually done ANYTHING has been something that God did. There were times that I looked for it - - and times when it just happened. The common denominator in each instance was that it was obviously something that I could NOT have accomplished alone.

That being said, I don't want there to be confusion about my importance in all of this. Get this clear - there is NO UNIQUE VISION! Everything that God will lead an organization toward is something that He has already led an organization toward. The UNIQUENESS comes from understanding WHO you are and WHAT God is asking you to do next.

That leads me to my next point...

VISION IS BOTH SEASONAL AND PERMANENT!

Vision is about figuring out what God wants us to do next. What is the next step for the organization? What is the next big hurdle? What is the ONE THING that is keeping us from moving forward?

Get this - that vision is something that comes FROM God - - then it's communicated TO people - - then we work on it WITH people - - once we get some traction on that vision, we look for the next component of vision!

In one way, vision is seasonal - in another way, it is permanent. Once an organization gets some traction on that idea, it becomes a core value that makes up the DNA of that organization. Get this - the former idea doesn't get abandoned - it becomes a part of what makes your organization unique.

VISION IS MULTI-DIMENSIONAL

There are 2 parts to vision leadership. INFORMATION and MOTIVATION!

All of the information about how an organization should move forward wont move anyone - even if you have cool graphics, processes and flow charts.

Conversely, all of the hype in the world will only get people excited long enough to realize that you are an empty leader.

Vision is both informational and motivational - it's like love and marriage... "you can't have one without the other."

VISION IS DYNAMIC

Too often, I have tried to be the only one trying to accomplish a vision. If vision is going to be worth following, it MUST apply everywhere from the communicator down. For instance, "our preaching must be Scripture centered" is not a vision that is dynamic - - it only applies to the preacher.

Vision MUST be something that the people who you work with to accomplish this season of ministry can own and sell to the people THEY work with.

All that said, I have a lot of work to do.

Jeremy

How important is "funny?"

Tonight, I had the distinct privilege of hearing Myah (she's 3) first funny joke. She was sitting at the dinner table eating the Mac-n-cheese that I made (Sheila was at MOPS) when she said "Daddy, why did the cow cross the road? He wanted to go to the mooooovie theater."

Now, I know it doesn't have you rolling on the ground... and she certainly won't make the next blue collar tour with that material (although cow jokes might fit in... who knows), but for a dad that values funny... this was a big moment!

I don't know about anyone else, but I guess I think most anything should have some kind of funny moment... or at least an attempt.

I have said this to as many people as will listen to me for more years than I can remember... if there is not a comedian at my funeral someone is not listening to me! (btw - not a Christian comedian - I mean a funny comedian... he can be a christian and he can be clean... just no churchy jokes - theologial humor is neither theological, nor humorous)

Anyway... I often wonder how important is "funny" in the big picture. If I am honest, I came by my desire to make jokes and be an idiot out of necessity to survive Junior high... if they were laughing at me... they weren't laughing AT me.

5 reasons I think humor has a big place in our lives because...

1. it makes us realize that we aren't as big a deal as we think.
2. it takes like a million more muscles to frown than it does to smile (I will leave the exact number of muscles to the geeks... you guys probably don't even understand what I am talking about anyway... too busy flexing those frowning muscles and freaking out over my bad spelling, punctuation and capitalization)
3. it relieves stress
4. it reminds us that things will get better... and then get worse again... and so on
5. I am still happy that people sometimes laugh at me rather than AT me.

Jeremy

Leadership in the Making: "Allow others to lead or fail alone"

I have been keeping a leadership journal of sorts... nothing big... just a document that I write in as I learn lessons about leadership (I figure it will be pretty cool to look back on them 10 or 15 years from now). Anyway, as I learn them... I write them... from time to time, I will post one (when the lesson is not too embarrassing). Here is one that I called "Allow others to lead or fail alone"

When I got to the point where I was supported by talented leaders (not just led by them), it became very obvious that the only thing that was going to keep them from succeeding was my ego.

About 2 months ago, we hired Nate Bristol as the “Student Ministries Assistant Pastor” at New Hope. It became obvious within a couple of weeks that my biggest challenge working with Nate was not going to be getting him started on things – it was going to be slowing him down! While we were in Honduras, I told another of our leaders who was commenting on Nate’s ability, that my worst fear in hiring had come true… the only thing that stands between Nate and success at New Hope is my ego. I questioned then – and continue to do so – how long it will take me to develop the skill of releasing leadership to those around me rather than simply delegating tasks and treating the leaders around me beneath their ability and skill level.

I choose those words carefully – “how long will it take for me to develop the skill of releasing leadership.” I think that there are very few of us who spend years building anything (a business, a ministry, etc) and then willfully hand off the significant parts of leadership in that setting to the first guy that you hire (or who volunteers) without thinking that it would just be easier to do it myself.

This kind of delegation is a skill that I will need to intentionally develop – one that I am thankful other men in my life have chosen to develop. As I look back at the last 15 years in ministry, I am thankful for men like Mike Mihich, Bill Jetton, Mark Wilkins and George Kreger who have seen something in me that they felt confident in developing – confident enough to develop the skill of letting go of their “baby” and letting me cut my ministry teeth on their platforms or in their pulpit – risking not only their reputation, but all of the risk that you run when you let someone else step in.

This past Wednesday night, I failed at this. We knew it would be a big night. We booked American Idol finalist Chris Sligh and knew we would have around 200 students. To make a long story short – guess who took the stage to deliver and under-prepared talk? You guessed it… me. Why? Because “it would just be easier for me to do it myself.” After all, I would need less time to prepare… I already have a relationship with the students… and a half dozen other crappy excuses. In the end, I traded quality and effective leadership for ego – something that I hope to see happen less and less as I develop this skill.

Close friends!

My good friend Smokey is the youth pastor at FBC Biloxi. We have gotten to know him and his family very well since we worked in Biloxi after Hurricane Katrina. It's different knowing someone in the gulf... the news reports and weather updates are surreal!

Please pray for Smokey and his family. They have chosen to board up their house and hunker down for the storm.

It's been a while!

Ok... I know that there are only about 3 people reading this and I also know that you are all either related to me... or you are me... but, I want to be better at posting... it's not to be read... I just want to write more!



I am so stinking impressed with what God is doing right now! I don't get it! This Summer has just FLOWN by. It seems like yesterday that the kids were getting out of school and youth group was finishing up for the season. There was so much in front of me... hire an additional student ministry person to accommodate the new job role at New Hope... work alongside of George (our Lead Pastor) to transition our leadership team while we wait for the third part of the SLT (Dave Nicholls, our "XP") to get on site full time... plan and execute our mission experience trip to Honduras with 28 students and 6 adults... preach a good chunk of the summer... not to mention see my kids enjoy the beautiful Summer weather and spend a week on vacation with my incredible wife and kids... ... and get back just in time to kick off "the Edge" for the fall...



It's hard to believe that students (with the exception of Stryker) are back in school now and we have already started Wednesday nights back up! Each of the past 6 years, we have seen our first night of student ministry grow... 2 years ago, it was 79... last year, it was 84... this year, we saw 144 students (including 90 students in Junior High alone)!!!



I am confident that these notes (assuming I stick to writing them) will be a time line chronicle of some pretty amazing God stories as He unfolds his next great movement in Northwest Ohio! You know... sometimes there isn't much around here... but isn't is just then... when we think that there is nothing special around... that God shows up and does amazing things!!!!



i look forward to ranting here...



Jeremy

Remind me why I do this!

Some of you may already be regular readers of the "vision of New Hope" blog to which I contribute, but if not - this is a post that sums up my heart and passion for New Hope (and the Church in general for that matter!)

I know that I am not the only one who sometimes gets overwhelmed with the demands of my job. At times, I look at all that there is to do and I get discouraged for a bit in a "woe is me" kind of way. It's times like that when I need to be reminded why I do what I do... so here goes:

I love the mission of this Church! Churches have their part in the body of Christ just like we do - we aren't all the same. I think that each local church has to find its niche in the body of Christ. For instance, the church I grew up in was really into missions. We spent a great deal of Sunday evening services (remember those?) hearing from an overseas missionary home on furlough ("here we are with our team under the banana tree..."). Over these years in ministry, I have been to "worshiping churches" where there was just something about the church that made you want to worship. I've been to great teaching churches where the pastor could talk for 2 hours and I wouldn't miss a beat (and that's saying something). Let's just say that there are a LOT of different kinds of churches. I love the mission of New Hope - to help people take their next step toward Christ. As I have watched this church grow (both numerically and spiritually) over the past 5+ years, I love the fact that we are quickly becoming a church that is bent on reaching those in our neighborhoods, workplaces and even families who are outside of a relationship with Christ - THAT IS WHAT GETS ME UP IN THE MORNING!

I love the message of this Church! It's not enough to deliver a good "show" on Sunday morning. As a leadership team, it is without doubt our greatest desire to present the life changing, soul redeeming, unbelievable truth of Christ and what he did for us on the cross! Our goal is to find a culturally relevant vehicle to deliver the timeless truth of Jesus Christ!

I love the people of this Church! Over the past 5 years, I have gotten a chance to know some of the most incredible people in the world! I am not exaggerating! It is comforting to me to know that I am trying my dead level best to reach Northwest Ohio with some of my best friends in the world. I look forward to going to Church on Sunday morning because I get to see friends from every age group from the children my kids play with to the students I have worked with for the past 5 years to their parents and grandparents!
In the end - this church is like family to me... it's not without its issues and struggles, but at the end of the day (and the beginning)... I LOVE THIS CHURCH!!!

And, I'm not alone... check out this email I got from someone in the church a few weeks ago:

"Our church worship and message was AWESOME!!! I can't say it enough, it was AWESOME!! I had a couple of friends visit, and that is all I heard them say, was how AWESOME the worship was, and how they enjoyed how Pastor George related to them/ he kept their attention :) This is one of MANY reasons why I LOVE MY CHURCH!!!!"

How can you help it?

Jeremy