Flannel and Beards

@beardsandflannel

@beardsflannel flannelandbeards@gmail.com Dan White Jr shared some of his grumpy church planting opinions, we review his opinions and add our own.

@beardsflannel flannelandbeards@gmail.com Being bivocational sucks! Join us for Season 2 of Flannel and Beards.

How do you plant a church in the middle of a pandemic? Join us for Season 2 of Flannel and Beards. Watching a video service can make you feel like a consumer. The church serving is more important than the church service. The most important time on Sunday is the relationships and conversations after a service. Many churches saw huge drops in giving during quarantine. You have to know who your church audience is and what is going to reach them. Younger churchplanters and ministers can help older churches adapt to technology for their church. The biggest challenge facing people during this time is isolation. Zoom is more exhausting than isolation is. We are designed for relationships. No matter how old we are or how introverted we are we all need relationships. This is a global psychological event that is going to scar the world for a long time. Churchplanting during quarantine is especially lonely. Keep healthy routines. Focus on a few people to connect deeply with. Covid revealed how limited our control and capacity actually is. “Do for one what you wish you could do for all.” -Andy Stanley Fair went out the window in the garden. Part of faith is realizing your limitations and embracing your limitations. Don’t be afraid to get professional counseling. Gen x just kissed up to boomers to get their power and influence. Millennials are going to pout until the world boomers built changes. Gen z are going to burn everything down. Is this an interruption or a disruption? Most churches live like it is fifty years ago and very few churches build for the future. Corona virus has forced some churches to move out of the past. Churches will lose casual attenders during quarantine. It is the pause and quiet that are the cracks that God whispers into. You will never make it through a crisis without rest. @beardsflannel flannelandbeards@gmail.com

In the second half of our interview with Al DiSalvatore we dig into the effect church planting can have on your soul. @beardsflannel flannelandbeards@gmail.com

This week we interview a former churchplanter, Al DiSalvatore to talk about the success, stress and sustainability of church planting. This is part 1 of a two part interview. @beardsflannel flannelandbeards@gmail.com

What does it mean to be culturally relevant and biblically faithful? @beardsflannel flannelandbeards@gmail.com

Flannel and beards is back with an episode about burnout.

Eric and Alex share stories about how God has shown up and shown off in their church plants. @beardsflannel flannelandbeards@gmail.com

Eric returns from an extended vacation and Alex interviews him with a series of rapid fire churchplatnting questions that hits on a wide range of topics. @beardsflannel flannelandbeards@gmail.com

How do you recruit a core team? What should they do? @beardsflannel flannelandbeards@gmail.com

"Churchplanting will bring your insecurities to the surface, and either they will burn off in the glory of God or they will consume you." @beardsflannel flannelandbeards@gmail.com

As a planter you need a strong mentor to help you on your journey! @beardsflannel flannelandbeards@gmail.com

Mission teams can be a great help to a Churchplanter! @beardsflannel flannelandbeards@gmail.com

Churchplanting is hard, but everything meaningful is hard! Don't give up just because there are challenges or disappointments or because the call requires sacrifice! Contact us @beardsflannel flannelandbeards@gmail.com

The one in which we argue a lot. @beardsflannel flannelandbeards@gmail.com

This week we talk about the importance of resting and reflecting. @beardsflannel flannelandbeards@gmail.com

In this special podcast episode, Alex interviews Eric and Christy and another couple about the importance of having a strong marriage and healthy relationships in our lives. @bearsdflannel flannelandbeards@gmail.com

@beardsflannel flannelandbears@gmail.com

In our continued interview with Mark White we talk about how you know you're a good fit as a campus pastor and how to deal with criticism.

Episode 19: Interview with Mark White (PT 1) Mark White planted a campus church, and we discuss the unique challenges of starting a campus. Tweet about us! Use the hashtag #flannel&beards Email us at flannelandbeards@gmail.com

Episode 18: What Makes You Unique Tweet about us! Use the hashtag #flannel&beards Twitter and Instagram @beardsflannel Email us at flannelandbeards@gmail.com

This week we interview our wives about the joys and sorrows of being a church planting wife.

Episode 16 Notes: Discipleship Tweet about us! Use the hashtag #flannel&beards Twitter and Instagram @beardsflannel Email us at flannelandbeards@gmail.com

Episode 15 Notes: Finding Your Target Audience If you don’t target someone, you won’t hit anyone. Different audiences are going to respond to different approaches. We can waste our time and resources if we do not have a target audience. Our audience helps us to determine where to spend our time. Most churches have a base line economic level. A churchplanter has a limited budget and resources, so you have to strategically target an audience. A target audience doesn’t mean you don’t have a heart for everyone to know Jesus. It means you recognize that God doesn’t need to use you to reach everyone. Different churches reach different people. Who are the churches in your community reaching? Who are they not reaching? We have to align our time, budget, messaging and programming around our target audience. Even people who don’t think they have a target audience, practically have a target audience. People on stage let people know who your target is. Men want to find a man they can look up. Women want to find a women they can relate to. We can confuse people when we say we want to focus on one audience and then highlight people who don’t fit our target audience. Be mean about protecting who your target audience is. Know the needs of the audience you want to reach. A blended service that attempts to please everyone will disappoint everyone. Don’t exclude people outside of your target audience, but let them know if they come the focus isn’t going to be on them. Tweet about us! Use the hashtag #flannel&beards Twitter and Instagram @beardsflannel Email us at flannelandbeards@gmail.com

Episode 14 Notes: Churchplanting Calling Calling is God’s unique purpose for you. God’s will and God’s calling are two different things. The will of God is what God wants everyone to do. Calling is what God wants you uniquely to do. God’s will is the behaviors He wants us all to have. We use calling to excuse what we don’t want to do and defend what we want to do. Because people won’t argue with God. The calling of God usually leads us to greater sacrifice, danger and risk. “The center of God’s purpose is the most dangerous place to be, not the safest place to be.” -Erwin McManus We use God as an excuse to do what we want. Sometimes we say we prayed about something, but all we did was think about it. Don’t church plant because it is sexy. Churchplant because you are called. People chase platforms. Some people see church planting as a path to a platform. Churchplanting is too hard and painful to do on a whim. Tweet about us! Use the hashtag #flannel&beards Twitter and Instagram @beardsflannel Email us at flannelandbeards@gmail.com

Episode 13 Notes: Things That Make a Churchplanter Smile God knows how to party! 1. Life transformation in people you have been investing in make church planters smile! When we see people’s life trajectory radically changed by encountering Christ through you, that makes you smile! People reading the Bible for the first time makes me smile! Watching people grow and produce spiritual fruit is exciting! When you don’t celebrate what has happened you will focus on what hasn’t happened and get discouraged. The work of the church is to make disciples of Jesus. The work of humanity is to worship God. We should celebrate the gap between where people were and how far they have come, not how far they still have to go. We have to celebrate more things than baptisms. Spiritual growth moves people from all about themselves, to all about God, to all about others. 2. Other church planters make church planters smile! It is easy to get isolated as a church planter, but you rob yourself of the smiles another planter could bring you. The common spiritual warfare of church planting has a way of bonding brothers. 3. When something you dreamed about becomes a reality! When a vision goes from idea to implementation it makes you smile! Never stop casting vision. “One God idea is better than a million good ideas.” -Mark Batterson A church plant is a God idea planted in a church planter to be birthed through a planter by the power of God. 4. Seeing “God things” makes a church planter smile. When God does something despite our skills or planning it reminds us that the results are up to God. It lessens the burdens on us when we see God do what we cannot. Our Christianity is to often explainable. 5. What you learn about God through church planting makes a church planter smile! Churchplanting forces you to rely on God like never before which grows your faith. Your theology becomes more robust by churchplanting. Tweet about us! Use the hashtag #flannel&beards Twitter and Instagram @beardsflannel Email us at flannelandbeards@gmail.com

Episode 12 Notes: Developing Core Values Core values define the safe limits of who you are as a church. Core values become filters for ideas to see if they align with who our church is. Don’t steal someone else’s core values. Unique core values are birthed out of prayer. A church plant is something God births through you. Study the early church in Acts to develop Core values. Write down what you think the church should be and what you think it shouldn’t be. Develop key themes and flesh them out into practical statements. Get feedback on your core values from people who know churchplanting. Package them into memorable statements or key words. One of the greatest challenges for church planters is to be who God created us to be. Developing core values takes a lot of work! God has been planting seeds of your core values over time. Hating church is never a healthy starting point for a church plant. Allow the context to help develop your core values. Each context God is developing a unique church with a unique set of core values. Core values need to continue to be clarified and evolve. Different churches with different core values can exist side by side and reach different people. There is often culture shift between stated values and practiced values. Does what you do, align with what you say are your core values? Don’t forget your core values! You must maintain the integrity of your core values. Operating outside of your core values will cause confuse. Expect push back from people who want to change or destroy a core value. Tweet about us! Use the hashtag #flannel&beards Twitter and Instagram @beardsflannel Email us at flannelandbeards@gmail.com

Episode 11 Notes: The Importance of Prayer Praying binds the heart of people together. Nothing we do is going to matter if it is not preceded by prayer. We need to believe that God is in our every day deeds. We get so busy doing for God, we forget to be with God. The more we do, often the less time we spend with God. Prayer lines our heart up with God’s heart. “Prayer is never a substitute for obedience.” -AW Tozer We cannot read the Bible without prayer. The Spirit changes us, when we pray. Prayer is not an excuse for inaction, but equips us for our action to be effective. We must put Jesus and his desires at the heart of our prayers. Many times we are functional atheists when we pray. If you want to see prayers answered, pray for what God wants. Tweet about us! Use the hashtag #flannel&beards Twitter and Instagram @beardsflannel Email us at flannelandbeards@gmail.com

Episode 10 Notes: Things That Make Churchplanters Cry “Not all tears are evil.” -JRR Tolkien Sometimes tears spiritually mature you. When your heart breaks for what breaks the heart of God, you are becoming more like Jesus. We need to be authentic and transparent with our heart and hurt. We must keep soft hearts when we churchplant. Churchplanting will either make your heart cynical or soft. “Until God breaks your heart for the people who don’t know God, you won’t reach people. God will never use you to reach a people, until He breaks your heart for a people.” -Andy Wood We cannot reach a people we despise. Through Christ we can see the lies that people around us have believed and how it is destroying their lives. God loved the people in your city long before you got there, and He sent you to show His love for them. It can be overwhelming when you see the depth and darkness of the brokenness in our cities. You don’t understand the pain of a people, until you live with them in community. The needs of your city are too vast — you are inadequate to meet them without supernatural help. Wrestling with our insecurities to start a church and trying to meet the needs of a community will bring you to heartbreak. Our weakness drives us to God where our strength is. All of our efforts fall short without God. When God reveals our inadequacies it is a divine revelation for our good. The worst suffering is seeing someone you love suffer. A whole family sacrifices to make a churchplant work. There are things that Jesus cannot teach us through joy, so He teaches us them through sorrow. “Sometimes God has a hard grace for us.” -Paul David Tripp Sometimes we weep because we are simply physically exhausted. Broken hearts drive our hands to action. 1 Peter 4:13 But rejoice as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. Psalm 56:8 You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book. Tweet about us! Use the hashtag #flannel&beards Twitter and Instagram @beardsflannel Email us at flannelandbeards@gmail.com

Episode 9.0 Notes: Ten Things Every Churchplanter Needs to Learn Part 2 6. Be humble Don’t assume you’re the magical missing link for God to move in the city. Learn from other people. Keep a teachable spirit. Be open to criticism. Don’t make the churchplant a show about you! Give away responsibility and power. It’s not healthy if you do it all. They will begin to rely on you and not God. God fights the proud, and helps the humble. 7. Authenticity is the apologetic of our time Most questions today are emotionally driven and demand a relational answer. The church is not the end goal, people are the end goal. You can’t keep your true self hidden and churchplant. 8. Don’t Apologize The pressure in a post Christian culture is to apologize for truth. Many times what the church propagates is the traditions of men. We cannot apologize for orthodoxy lived out in our orthopraxy. We cannot apologize for coming to a city with the gospel. Don’t change your message to make people feel good. We need to walk around with a holy confidence to where God has called us. 9. Be Mean about the vision The vision for your church plant did not come from you or a book, it came from God and needs to be fought for. Churchplants attract people who were disgruntled at other churches, who think they can come in while a church is young and small and mold it into what they want. People will come to church plants and try to turn it into something unhealthy because they are unhealthy. Methodologies can change, but the the core fundamentals of the churchplant are non-negotiables. I have problems with the vision from churched people never unchurched people. Disgruntled people from other churches will attempt to use their presence, their money and talents to sway the vision. If you constantly change to meet the whims of people, you will be a church with no values and vision. If you try to please people, you will never please everyone. Please God! 10. Guard your character Churches can rise and fall on the character of the churchplanter. Put boundaries in place. Keep your promises. Have integrity financially. Most of the community expects us to be like their worst fears of religion. Expect increased and unexpected spiritual attacks when you churchplant. Stay closely connected to God. God guards our character when we stay close to Him. Tweet about us! Use the hashtag #flannel&beards Twitter and Instagram @beardsflannel Email us at flannelandbeards@gmail.com

Episode 8.0 Notes: Ten Things Every Churchplanter Must Learn 1. Comparison kills creativity. Comparison keeps you from celebrating what Jesus is doing in your church. We replicate what other people have done to chase the results other people have had. God wants to do something unique in your area that He is not going to do anywhere else. Our motivation needs to be pressing into the harvest that God has prepared in our community. Churchplanting can become a spiritual guise for our own selfish ambition. 2. Protect and nurture your marriage The most important people has put into our lives to care for and walk with are our family. We need to disciple our families. You have to protect your marriage from ministry. Ask your spouse, “How well do I protect and nurture our marriage.” Ask your spouse hard questions and listen to the answers. The church plant doesn’t trump your marriage. If it comes down to your marriage and family or the churchplant, choose your family. 3. Pray for miracles, but work for milestones Miracles are more rare than milestones. Expect God to work in miraculous ways, but put in the hard work to reach goals. “Prayer will be effective when we stop using it as a substitute for obedience.” -A.W. Tozer Being a church planter is hard work. You’re swimming against the flow of culture and church culture. 4. Be hospitable If you are going to make disciples like Jesus did, you need to spend time with people. Make people feel comfortable and wanted. Listen to what people are saying. Hospitably starts with your body language. Offer people a drink. Welcome people into your home. Take their coat. Make people feel like they are in the inside, not on the outside looking in. People will know we are disciples of Jesus by the way that we love. Most people think they are good at relationships. Invite people into your life. Invite yourself into other people’s lives. 5. The gospel moves at the speed of trust If you build trust with people far away from God, they will actually listen to what you have to say. We are quick to tell the culture what they need to do, before the people in the culture know that we actually love them. “If people know that you love them, they will listen to anything you have to say.” -Richard Baxter Sometimes we don’t love people, we want to use them to achieve spiritual results. People sense when you truly love them. Building trust is not a churchplanting tactic. It is the heart of Jesus. If you don’t sincerely love people, you’re sincerely wrong. People sense when they are projects. Ask God to break your heart for people in your community. It’s easy to see people as a means to an end, instead of an end itself. Make friends with sinners. Jesus did. Be normal people. Make friends, without strings attached. Trust is built over time. The gap between where people are and Jesus is, is bridged by trust. Tweet about us! Use the hashtag #flannel&beards Twitter and Instagram @beardsflannel Email us at flannelandbeards@gmail.com

Episode 7.0 Notes: Interview With David Pearson I don’t see a church plant as failed if we see lives changed. God doesn’t call us to success, He calls us to obedience. When things don’t happen the way we expected, we term ourselves as a failure. You don’t have one shot at churchplanting. Failure can be a great training ground for success. A “failed” church plant can be a major bruise to your ego. Be bold and courageous and know that God is with you. I had to make sure my wife was onboard. Make sure God is speaking to your spouse and not just you. It is easy to move from being a church plant to being an established church and stop doing the things that got you there. We get too focused on Sunday services and forget the key elements of being a churchplant. A church plant stops being a church plant when it stops thinking like a churchplant. What makes a church plant successful is dependency on God and a hunger to be in the community. When we get enough critical mass we start losing our outward focus and dependence on God. When you’re getting started you are always interested in meeting people and investing in people and often we get sidetracked by the Sunday service. The biggest thing I look for in a potential church planter is calling. Teachability is key. No church planter knows as much as they think they do. When we come in thinking we know all the answers we don’t depend on God. A church planter must depend on God, because ultimately it is God’s church not our church. What does the Holy Spirit want you to do? There are so many resources for planting now it’s easy to say I’ve seen this done somewhere else let me cookiee cutter that into my context. Every community is different. Every area is unique. There is not a way to start a church. There is the way God created you to create a church in the place He called you to. If we say this is what a book or training told me to do we’re losing that dependence on God. God created us all different. We have to look at how God uniquely made us to understand how He wants us to plant. No one knows your area as well as God knows your area. If you rely on a person to give you the answers, if God calls them away, you won’t have someone there to give you the answers. The Spirit will never leave you. Spiritual attacks are going to come when God is up to something in your churchplant. The enemy attacks you wherever your weakness is. The enemy’s attacks are financial, physical, relational and emotional. One of the enemy’s attacks is to get into our heads and tell us “we can’t” instead of remembering that our God can! A church planter is a walking target for spiritual attack. Have a verse that you can go back and lean on. Some days churchplanting just sucks. Sometimes that clear sense of calling is the only thing that keeps you planting. The biggest lie planters are believing is a misunderstanding of success. Many times planters see planting as an opportunity to have a platform to be famous. Planters think it is about Sunday morning service, but it is about disciples who make disciples. Planters develop unhealthy timelines. God calls us to a daily obedience. As pastor, the lies we believe become the lies our church believes. We need to look for the eternal impact we are making in lives, not the short term “big” success that our ego’s want to see. “Only God’s eyes are precise enough to tell the difference between success and failure.” -Anton Chekov Don’t give up! Don’t measure success by what other people think. Stay focused on making disciples. You can’t plant your church. It’s God’s church let Him plant it. Tweet about us! Use the hashtag #flannel&beards Twitter and Instagram @beardsflannel Email us at flannelandbeards@gmail.com

Episode 6.0 Notes: How to Preach to Unchurched People Protect the weakest link in the room. Resist the tendency to want to sound smart. Work hard to make every subject easy and simple to understand. “You don’t really understand something until you can explain it simply.” -Albert Einstein The message must be a bridge from where unchurched people are to where Jesus is. Spend the majority of your time with leaders and the lost. Take the time to pray and seek the Spirit to craft a clear message. Help people understand how this applies to them today in the modern world. Unchurched people don’t understand how the announcement applies to them if we don’t make application. Even churched people don’t understand or think about what most Christian cliches mean. Some Christian cliches remind people of negative views of the church. It’s lazy on our part when we use Christian platitudes and cliches. Unchurched people want to know the why behind what we believe and preach. Many times as pastors we haven’t been challenged about why we believe what we believe. Ask the hard questions of the text and the message before you preach it. Unchurched people expect you to be real and authentic. “Authenticity is the apologetic of our time.” -Dhati Lewis Unchurched people expect the church to be self-righteous and fake. Authenticity surprises them. Preach Jesus and the gospel all the time. Every problem is a sin problem, and the answer to every sin problem is Jesus and the gospel. How does the gospel speak to each and every situation you speak about? Take the time to plan out your sermons and series ahead of time. Is there anything that I’m scared to say in this message that I should say? We have to spend substantial amount of time to think about how we are going to say something, not just what we are going to say. Jesus always worried about the people far from God. Jesus appealed to the people who were ostracized by the religious people. It is arrogant of us to think that whatever we’ve been taught is what unchurched people need to hear. “The church doesn’t exist for christians. The church is christians. Christians exist to reach unchurched people.” -Sean Sears Have a humble heart when you preach. Have unchurched people in mind when you preach. Tweet about us! Use the hashtag #flannel&beards Twitter and Instagram @beardsflannel Email us at flannelandbeards@gmail.com

Episode 5.0 Notes: The First 30 Days of Churchplanting Do nothing. Take time to come to terms with the reality of the change. When you do nothing, actually a lot more gets done. Sometimes doing nothing helps you gain perspective. Help your spouse. The unsung heroes of Churchplanting are our families. Take the time to help your family adapt to their new surroundings. Take time to help unpack the boxes. Our families are effected by their environment and surroundings. Take your family with you as you have meetings and get training. Your first 30 days lays a foundation for the rest of your churchplant. Befriend other churches. We can learn a lot about the neighborhood from other churches. Sit back and worship with your family — enjoy the time before you start services. Find queso. Adopt the culture of your city, but don’t pretend to be something that you’re not. Hold on to traditions that comfort you and remind you where you came from. Be who you are and be honest about where you are from. Be you. Tweet about us! Use the hashtag #flannel&beards Twitter and Instagram @beardsflannel Email us at flannelandbeards@gmail.com

Episode 4.0 Notes: Books to Read in 2019 (and Gnomes) As a churchplanter you need to be very intentional about your life. “A pastor must exemplify a livable Christianity.” -Eugene Peterson How do live out being missional everyday? Churchplanting has shown me how reliant we must be on prayer. Sitting in praying feel like wasted time to a driven churchplanter, but is essential to church planting. We need to pray like a child. As church planters we all know we need to pray, but most of us struggle to actually pray. The way you need to lead can fluctuate rapidly in churchplanting. We need to make disciples who makes disciples who makes disciples if we want to plant churches that plant churches. If we build another consumer Christian church we’re not going to change North America. Pastors see people today as a platform to exalt themselves, rather than as a people to lay down your life for. Referenced Books/Resources Alex’s Picks Surprise the World by Michael Frost Sticky Teams by Larry Osborne Quiet by Susan Cain The Divine Commodity by Skye Jethani The Pastor by Eugene Peterson Bonus pick: The Light Princess by George MacDonald Eric’s Picks A Praying Life by Paul E. Miller Kingdom First by Jeff Christopherson The Kingdom Unleashed by Jerry Trousdale and Glenn Sunshine Start With Why by Simon Sinek https://youtu.be/u4ZoJKF_VuA (view the TED Talk here) The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll (Special thanks to Carson Rogers for the suggestion!) Bonus pick: The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson Tweet about us! Use the hashtag #flannel&beards Twitter and Instagram @beardsflannel Email us at flannelandbeards@gmail.com

Episode 3.0 Notes: Understanding Your Community Capture the “wow” of your new city. If you don’t love your city, you’re not going to love the people of your city. If you despise the people you will never change the place. Be consistent in places. Observe people. If you faithfully look, you will find social fault lines you can address as a follower of Christ. Be people who listen. Try to put yourself in a position to spend time with the people in your city. People love to help people. Let people know you don’t know. How do I begin implementing what I have learned about the community? How can I begin to use it to serve people and grow the church? “Choose a place to plant where you love to be, with people you love to be around.” -Mark Batterson Many times, as churchplanters we want to be the martyr. Know the place and the people so you can reason with the people for Jesus. The longer we are in a place, the more people trust us. Find out who your community gate keepers are. If your church was to close today would your community notice and miss you? We often go to a new place with assumptions based on where we came from. Once you lose trust it is twice as hard to get it back. Jesus always met people where they were. Referenced Books/Resources Exegeting your community questionnaire by Barry Whitworth Learning your new city checklist by Eric McMahon Tweet about us! Use the hashtag #flannel&beards Email us at flannelandbeards@gmail.com

Episode 2.0 Notes: Interview with Aaron Harvie https://www.highview.org/staff/aaron-harvie Churchplanting has become the new normal. The team aspect in churchplanting has been a welcome change. Churchplanting has become celebrated, which is a huge change from a few years ago. Emotional, spiritual and physical health are all connected. Allow time for you and your family to fall in love with the city where you’re planting. Enjoy the city in which you live. What brings you life? How can you do that in your city? Stop laying hands on the wrong people. I was so desperate for leaders, I overlooked a lot of red flags. I compromised on waiting for the right person. Instead of how to gather a crowd, I would focus on how we are making people passionate followers of Jesus. I was always looking for the silver bullet. There is no silver bullet. God grows a church out of the mundane, not out of the over the top miraculous. You have to stop looking at man, and start looking at God. Do the small things like they are big things. Comparison is the thief of joy. “[God] never sends the same wave twice.” -C.S. Lewis The number one lie church planter’s believe is that numbers are your identity. I thought my family would fall in love with the city as fast as I did. I had to be patient with them. We think it would be easier to plant somewhere else. It’s hard to plant everywhere. Thinking it is easier somewhere else distracts us from our calling to this place. Being the founding pastor of a church gives you a level of authority that you will never have in another church. In an established church, you are not the pastor, you are the next pastor. Whether you like it or not, there is a comparison. In a church plant, you can stay laser focused on one thing. In an established church there are so many competing ideas. Churchplanting taught me the power of a clear vision. God has called you to focus on His presence over your ability. There are lessons I learned on the field that I never would have learned if I took a more comfortable path in an established church. There are things God will not reveal to you unless you take a step of faith. God is more interested in what He is going to do in you than He is about what He’s going to do through you. Referenced Books/Resources Bob Logan’s The Churchplanter’s Toolkit Tweet about us! Use the hashtag #flannel&beards Email us at flannelandbeards@gmail.com

Episode 1.0 Notes: What Makes a Churchplant Successful Our definition of success has changed from when we started planting to where we are now. Every church plant, churchplanter, and context is unique. The ending “success” of your story is always going to look different. Having a definition of success that applies to everyone is an attempt at manufacturing success when church planting is very organic. You have to look at numbers, it’s a reality of churchplanting. We have to go to the Bible and find what is God’s heart for success rather than what does your denomination or network define as success. There is a difference between being successful and being sustainable. When we start we often use those two terms interchanegably. My church plant can be successful even if it has a short-term life. “Find joy in obedience not results.” -Matt Tipton We try to do the Holy Spirit’s job for Him. I try to do what God has promised to do, and ask God to do what He’s asked me to do. A church plant is successful if it has created disciples. We’re here to make disciples who make disciples. As visionary as you may be you cannot see the endgame. Success can’t be measured in what we can see in two years or five years. God works over generations rather than lifetimes. My arrogance says I want God to work in my lifetime so the success can be linked to me. “We overestimate what we can do in a year, and underestimate what God can do in ten years.” -Mark Batterson We want to be the magical missing piece that brings success to our city or community. Success is being a part of what God is doing, not getting the applause for what He is doing. Success is when God gets the glory. So much of our identity gets wrapped up in success. We set ourselves up for an identity crisis. Maybe you wouldn’t experience God like you could if He didn’t bring you through failure. We have such a narrow view of success we don’t have room for God to bring us through a death and resurrection and do something new. “We must lay down the burden of success, and begin to think of success as the present kingdom of God in my life.” -Dallas Willard Nothing robs joy like comparison. Let God be unique with us and our church plant and give us unique success. “If you can rock fifty people really well. Rock fifty people over and over again.” -Sean Sears There are ways of doing church that no one has thought about yet. What you see as failure may be the beginning of a brand new type of success. Referenced Books/Resources Center Church by Timothy Keller (incorrectly called City Church in the podcast) Acts 29 a church planting network founded by Matt Chandler New Morning Mercies by Paul Tripp Tweet about us! Use the hashtag #flannel&beards Email us at flannelandbeards@gmail.com

Two church planters in Philadelphia start a podcast about what they've learned about Jesus, starting churches and being modern day disciples. The new podcast kicks off in January 2019! Subscribe to the feed on iTunes so you never miss an insane episode.