Thought I would share a few church planting related blog posts by some Vineyard folks:
Post #1: “Leading and managing change: lessons from a church planter #1” by Jason Clark
Author bio: Jason is the pastor of the Sutton Vineyard in London, UK (planted in 1997) and serve as Area Leader. He holds a Doctor of Ministry degree in theology and leadership, and is currently completing PhD research on the church and culture.
Post summary: Jason outlines the five key leadership areas that he realizes that he has to face up to and grow in if his church is to move forward with God. The five areas are: Vision, Skills, Character, Counting the Cost, and Change.
My thoughts: I love Jason’s honesty and openness about having to change and grow as a leader in order to take the church to the place that God wants it to go. His statement, “what had gotten me here wouldn’t get me there”, is very telling and resonates with me as I transition out of the senior pastorship and into a new currently-undefined role within the local church. To always be growing, always going deeper with Jesus…that is life and it is hard.
Post #2: “If I Planted A Church Again, I Would… Pt. 1” by Dave Jacobs
Author Bio: Dave is a church coach and consultant based in Southwest Oregon. Before that he was a church planter and Vineyard area leader in California. (Personal note: Dave coached me for six weeks a few years ago and was very, very helpful!)
Post summary: Over the years Dave came up with a list of 37 changes he would make if he ever planted another church (he started three of them). Enough folks have asked him about this list that he decided to publish the list in small chucks. The link above takes you to the first six items on the list. The other 31 will be coming out over the next few weeks.
My thoughts: I’m not too sure about a few things on Dave’s list….granted, I know that he has a ton more experience and time pastoring then I do…yet, comment like the following make me nervous:
“I would try to be a humble, benevolent dictator, surrounded by a few people not afraid to get in my face and be honest with me.”
I think I know what he is getting at in that in starting a new church it is good to have someone calling the shots…however, I have seen a rise in team leadership that I feel is healthier for both the church body and the pastor/leadership team. For example, if one is bivocational (which Dave lists as a good thing in point number 2) then being a “humble, benevolent dictator” means long hours and TONS of stress. To me personally, I would rather go with a co-pastor/team-leader structure and try to lower the stress load. =/
What do you think about these two articles?