NickPooleNow.com

Following up my previous post on Growing Yourself through blogs, here are some suggested books on similar topics:

• Marketing
  • Purple Cow by Seth Godin
  • The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
• Church Structure/Process
  • The Purpose Driven Church by Rick Warren
  • Simple Church by Thom S. Rainer & Eric Geiger (You can read my synopsis here)
• Leadership Development
  • Next Generation Leader by Andy Stanley
  • One Size Doesn’t Fit All by Gary L. McIntosh (I love this guy’s last name-it reminds me of this little computer company)
• Spiritual Development (the most important type of development)
  • Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby
  • Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire by Jim Cymbala
  • The Best Book on Spiritual Development (you should already have this one)
• Church Planting
  • Launch by Nelson Searcy
  • Planting Missional Churches by Ed Stetzer
• Communicating (that’s preaching for you old school readers)
  
  • Communicating for a Change by Andy Stanley
  • Made to Stick by Chip & Dan Heath

This is by no means exhaustive, are there any books in these categories you would suggest?

In our weekly MCM pastor’s meetings at Panera we are currently discussing different growth barriers that keep our churches from reaching their full potential. The barrier we working through right now is ‘Growing Yourself’.

One good way to grow yourself is by following different blogs, especially those that deal with weaknesses you have. Below I’ve listed different suggested blogs with their topics - dive on in!!

• Marketing
  • Seth Godin: The best marketing blogger on the web.
  • Church Marketing Sucks: The blog’s title pretty much says it all.
• Leadership Development
  • Leadership Now: This is a great leadership blog that often gives you brief summaries of the best & latest leadership books.
  • Tony Morgan: Tony came out of the political world to begin working in the church. He has a very balanced perspective on leadership and the church.
• Creative Ministry Ideas/Insights
  • Access Elevation: This is a collaborative blog of the staff at Elevation Church, an explosive church in Charlotte, NC.
  • Monday Morning Insights: This is a blog written mostly by Todd Rhoades, a staffer from the ministry powerhouse, Leadership Network.
• Church Planting
  • Dave Ferguson: Dave is the Lead Pastor of Community Christian Church (a truly reproducing church), president of the New Thing Network and the Exponential Church Planting Conference!
  • Process Ministry: A collaborative blog of 25 church planters from around the country (including our very own Jeff Leake!).
• Pastor’s with Valuable Insights
  • Craig Groeschel: Craig pastors Lifechurch.tv, the leading multi-site church in the nation. What I appreciate about his blog is he is so down to earth and his blog posts are simple & to the point - no three page books!
  • Steven Furtick: This guy is only 28, planted a church that only 2 years in has over 2,000 people and is one ball of energy!

Are there additional blogs you would recommend?

Twitter has become a new phenomenon and is actually pretty cool!  WIth that said, Perry Noble wrote a great post today answering the question, “What If Peter Used Twitter?” - check it out, it’s some good stuff!

Almost 2 months ago now, we launched our 7th church plant, BridgePoint Church, but for me it was the first one I was a part of from beginning through the launch.  With that said, I just wanted to post some things I’ve learned up to this point going through the process:

• There is no set process that works everywhere.  Even the best ideas and models have to be adjusted to fit the context.
• Although church planting is the ‘in thing’ to do right now, it’s hard work.  If there was ever a ministry position that is not glamorous (and really none are), church planting would be at the top of the ‘non-glamorous’ list.
• Although church planting is hard work, there should still be strategy and vision.  Communicating vision to your launch team is the fuel that drives their work ethic.
• Knowing who you are and who you’re reaching will save you a lot of frustration in the long run.
• It seems to be more effective planting with a handful of dedicated church members and building the church with new believers then sending 150 church members to start a church.

Well, that’s all for now.  I’ll continue to post things as I discover them!  Remember, always be a life-long learner - we will never know it all!!

In case you’re wondering what exactly our process for planting is, you can check it out here.

This has been a pretty busy, but really good weekend! Here’s a quick rundown:

• Friday Night we had our monthly MCM Pastor’s Gathering at BridgePoint Church with Ron Johnson - I love getting together with our pastors, it really feels like one big family!
• Saturday we had our MCM Leader’s Summit for ministry leader’s at all our MCM Churches. It was an awesome day with over 150 leaders.
• This morning I attended Evangel Church and officiated their business meeting where they voted to merge with Ridgewood Assembly - they voted yes. There are some great days ahead for the Ridgewood/Evangel Church! (You can follow the new pastor’s (Pastor Chris) thoughts on this whole thing here)
• After a great afternoon with my family for Mother’s Day, I led the Millvale Neighborhood Group (I’m really excited about these new Neighborhood Groups!)

“Imitation is the greatest form of flattery” as the famous quote says.  If that’s true, then Chick-Fil-A should feel pretty flattered!  McDonald’s has introduced a brand new sandwich they call their ‘Southern Style Chicken Sandwich’, which looks an awful lot like Chick-Fil-A’s chicken sandwich.

I’m reading a book right now called Mavericks at Work.  It’s a great book highlighting different corporations that have revolutionized their industries.  One of the shifts they outline in the commercial world is a shift in how companies compete today. Apparently, McDonald’s has missed this boat.  The book states that in the past companies were compared based on their products (product vs. product).  Then there was a shift to compare companies based on their business model.  Today companies are being compared based on their value systems.

If you know anything about Chick-Fil-A, you know that their value system drives them.  All Chick-Fil-A’s are closed on Sundays.  The stand-alone stores all play Christian music.  Chick-Fil-A employees all somehow have this ‘Southern Charm’ about them.  Why is this?  Because they have a clear value system.  Their motto is “We’re here to serve.  And not just sandwiches.”

In comparing these these two chicken sandwiches, people are probably split, but if you look at the value systems of these two restaurants, I would have to say Chick-Fil-A is far above McDonald’s.  While McDonald’s is the ‘big boy’ on the proverbial fast food block, when given a choice between going to McDonald’s or Chick-Fil-A, most people would probably choose Chick-Fil-A because of their value system.

Here’s a question - how does the value system of your church affect your attendance?  Or how you relate to new visitors?

This past week I attended my sister’s graduation from my alma mater, Central Bible College. It was so cool to see her walk down the aisle and receive her degree. I can’t express how proud I am of her - she’s so worked hard and it’s paid off!!

She graduated with her degree in Missions and since she was a kid her goal has been to be a missionary to Africa. God has really had His hand on her life from an early age. I can’t wait until the day she’s ministering in Africa. Someone might want to warn Satan, because once she steps foot on African soil, things are going to start happening!! Way to go Tash - I’m proud of you!

Battlefield, MO is a small town just outside of Springfield and this week they announced some exciting news.  With this announcement they anticipate growth, both numerically and comercially.  Their population is approaching 5,000 and they now feel as if they ‘have arrived’ as a town.  Although this small town has yet to boast a post office or grocery store the announcement of a new McDonald’s coming to the town as begun talks of booming growth!

This says a lot about a society.  I would venture to guess that this McDonalds will be a hub of activity in this small town.  Being in Missouri, I’m sure this small town has a church, but the question I have is:  Can a church have such an impact on a community that their very existence in a community changes the community’s outlook of itself?  Just a thought.

You can read the entire article in the Springfield Newsleader here.

For those that attend APC or are curious about the new Neighborhood Groups I posted about a couple weeks ago. Here’s a brief synopsis of what they are and what they are not.

The idea of a Neighborhood conveys thoughts of family, unity and safety. Our goal with Neighborhood Groups is to create a sense of family and unity to bring those that are hurting in our communities into this safe place to experience healing & restoration through the power of God.

WHAT WE ARE…

• We are outreach-driven. The harvest is our purpose for existence.
• We are single-minded: Reach the lost.
• We are a community of believers committed to the cause of bringing eternal change to the neighborhoods we live in.
• We are a group of people that accepts individuals as they are without stereotype or assumptions, but prays for God to take them to where they need to be.
• Although we join together weekly, we do not exist for each other, we exist for those who are disconnected from God.
• We are supportive and always strive for unity over victory.

WHAT WE ARE NOT…

• We are not a church gossip club.
• We are not a theological forum for debate.
• We are not in this for ourselves.
• We are not here to discuss our perspective of church, but rather God’s perspective of humanity.
• We are not here to push our own agendas, but the gospel.
• We are not a feel-good devotional Bible study.
• Although we believe prayer is important, we are not a prayer group.

A couple weeks ago in our weekly MCM Pastor’s meeting at Panera we were talking about who we are as a movement of churches and what characterizes us. One of the characteristics of MCM we identified is we believe in always pulling for the underdog. Giving that church planter or pastor or leader a chance when no one else will.

One of the things that came up in relation to that, though, is how do we achieve excellence in ministry while still being ‘for the underdog’? As I’ve been thinking this through below are some thoughts:

In asking that question, there is first an assumption that the underdog is of lesser quality than the ‘A-List’ leader, which isn’t always true. Also, as leaders we can most often have a distorted definition of excellence. My definition of excellence is this: Exceeding realistic expectations with the resources you have.

One person that would often achieve this was one of my favorite TV characters – MacGyver. He took the resources in front of him and exceeded expectations.

For a church plant or a church of 75-100 to even possibly compete with the level of ‘excellence’ of a Willow Creek or Lifechurch.tv isn’t realistic. A church that size doesn’t have the same volunteer base, the same resources or even necessarily the same target audience.

If you are pastoring a church and feel as if you can’t measure up. Rethink your definition of excellence. Don’t gripe that you don’t have Chris Tomlin leading worship for you, exceed the realistic expectations with the resources you have!