How not to be a church planting pirate

An old friend who is on staff at a church in another state asked for some advice about church planting. I love his heart. He wants to be a blessing to his current church and ministry assignment from God.

He said, "I have been leading [a ministry in my current] church. My wife and I have recently felt like God is beginning to again renew this vision [to plant a new church] in our hearts. He has place a great team of people around us to support us and help lead the church as well as some wise mentors over my life and ministry. We're right now really trying to understand how to leave our current chuch and be remembered well. [We want] God's perfect timing for that movement.

I'm writing you as someone whom I know has a heart for God without agendas and as someone whom i've looked up to for years. Any kind of advice you'd have for me will be well received.

Thanks so much, man. I so much appreciate your heart and the ministry God has used you to create.

***

Good to hear from you. Hope all is well.

Here are some suggestions for starting out:

1) Talk with leadership at your current church about God’s call on your life. Let them know that you want to explore whether or not you are called to plant a church. I would not announce, “God has called me to plant a church… 3 miles away!” That’s a sure way to get a negative response. I don't think you want to be a church planting pirate, right? Check out the You Tube video from Ed Young, Jr. about the dangers of being a church planting pirate. Please ask for your leaders' input and guidance. Does your church have a vision for planting? Let them know that you want to bless your current church and ministry within the church and that you will not do anything to hurt or harm the church. In fact, let them know that you want to bless and to grow your current ministry. Let them know your heart is still with your current church, but that you are pursuing what God may have in store for you.

2)Ask your leadership to help you identify whether or not you are gifted to plant. We use 3 assessments. The first is online. The second is a 4 hour interview with the church planter and his spouse. The third is a 4 day formal assessment that occurs in Wisconsin or Arizona. The goal of the assessments is to identify giftedness for planting. I do not think that anyone should plant without first going through the assessment process. If you are affirmed through the assessment process (which is vigorous) then church leadership will likely affirm and support your call to church planting.

The online assessment we use can be found here:

We have two sites for equipping church planters. One is here and the other is here.

We are a part of Vision 360.

Blessings, brother. By the way, why not come back to NE Ohio to do this?

Advent Conspiracy

I am looking forward to CVC participating in the Advent Conspiracy again this year. Check out the new video.



Will you participate in the Advent Conspiracy this year?

Babies have value before they are born (8)

Sue Gilliland, a CVCer who serves at the Cleveland Pregnancy Center, turned me on to the following encouraging story. More and more people are seeing that babies have value before they are born.

Read how Abby Johnson, the former director of an abortion clinic, had a change of heart on the issue after she witnessed an abortion.

You can watch an actual abortion online at The Center for Bioethical Reform [Note: the video begins immediately and is very graphic.] One of the fullest and best sites for education on abortion is Abort73.com.

***

Planned Parenthood Clinic Director Joins Anti-Abortion Group

Abby Johnson quit her job. That simple act has become a national news story because Johnson, 29, was the director of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Texas who said she experienced a "change of heart" while participating in an abortion procedure.

Johnson has now joined a group called Coalition for Life, which prays outside the clinic where she worked.

"I had never seen an abortion happen on an ultrasound," she said. "My job during the procedure was to hold the probe on the woman's abdomen. I could see the whole profile of the baby 13 weeks head to foot. I could see the whole side profile. I could see the probe. I could see the baby try to move away from the probe."

Johnson worked at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Bryan, Texas, for nine years, first as a volunteer and then as the director. Her duties included running the family planning and abortion programs. The clinic performed abortions two days a month.

Although she had seen ultrasounds before, including during her own pregnancy, Johnson said she had never seen an ultrasound image during an abortion. She is unclear why, as the director of the clinic, she was asked to be in the procedure room on that day, because it was not a normal part of her duties. Still, Johnson said, the experience changed her forever.

"I just thought, 'What am I doing?'" she said. "And then I thought, 'Never again.'"

Two weeks later, Johnson quit.

"I looked out the window and saw a couple of women praying and I thought, 'That's where I need to go,'" Johnson said.

She walked down the street and into the welcoming arms of the Coalition for Life.

Although she had originally been happy at her job, Johnson slowly grew to question "the motives of the organization," she said, particularly because her superiors were "pushing clinics that did have an abortion program to bring in more money."

Diane Quest, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood, said she could not speak to Johnson's allegations about money, but said 90 percent of the health care that "our affiliates provide is preventative in nature -- contraception, screenings and STD testing and treatment."

"Obviously, many people -- both patients and health care providers -- experience complex thoughts and emotions about abortion," Quest said. "That's why Planned Parenthood respects it as a personal, emotional issue."

And the emotions around this issue have been running at fever pitch since the Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973 in the now-famous Roe v. Wade decision.

Johnson's defection will undoubtedly be seen as a public relations coup for the antiabortion movement, not unlike when "Jane Roe" herself announced that she had become a member of Operation Rescue -- an anti-abortion rights group.

Norma McCorvey, the 61-year-old woman who was at the center of the famous Roe v. Wade case, supported abortion rights until the mid-1990s.

Around that time, McCorvey befriended several people from Operation Rescue and she has remained an anti-abortion activist ever since. McCorvey was ejected from Sonia Sotomayor's Supreme Court nomination hearing after yelling that Sotomayor was "wrong" about abortion.

Planned Parenthood filed a "restraining order of disclosure" against Johnson, because of fears she may have taken confidential files out of the organization. Johnson denied those allegations, and the two sides will meet at a hearing on Nov. 10.

Johnson said she is not out to become an activist.

"I'm not doing this to judge anyone," she said. "My goodness, I have participated in the abortion industry for eight years. I'm just here as a resource and telling my story ... and maybe somebody will be touched by it."

As for Planned Parenthood, Quest said the organization's work will go on regardless.

***

May the work of those who are saving the lives of the onborn go on until the day when, as a nation, we will view abortion as an unthinkable act of violence just as we now view the lynching of African-Americans as an inthinkable act of violence.

Hasten the day, Lord Jesus.

Babies have value before they are born (7)

After speaking a few weeks ago from Psalm 139 about how babies have value before they are born, I was very aware that in our church were men and some women who had in thier own personal lives participated in and approved of past abortions. I saw people leaving church with tears of regret in their eyes.

So at the end of the message I said, "You may be thinking, 'I don’t deserve forgiveness after all I’ve done.' And that’s exactly right. None of us deserves forgiveness. If we deserved it, we wouldn’t need it. Christ got what we deserved on the cross, so we could get what we don’t deserve—forgive¬ness, a clean slate, a fresh start.

"No matter what you have done, no sin is beyond the reach of God’s grace. A great leader in the church, a man named Paul, was a murderer; he had participated in the killing of Christians. He called himself the 'chief of sinners.' God forgave Paul and used Paul greatly. He can forgive you and use you.

"Maybe you imagine that in heaven the skeleton’s going to come out of the closet and someone will discover you had an abortion. Well, no skeletons are going to come out of the closet, because there are no skeletons and there are no closets. God knows already. God has seen us at our worst and still loves us.

"God loves us as we are, but He loves us too much to let us stay that way. He is determined to bring us to our knees to confess, repent, and be healed.

"Once we acknowledge our sin and repent and ask God to forgive us, we must resist the temptation to wallow in guilt feelings. We are no longer guilty.

"I recently read about a woman who said, 'I believed God could forgive any sin, except my abortion.' She discovered that she had been wrong. She’d been punishing herself for a sin Christ had already taken the punishment for. No sin is too big for the Savior to forgive.

"That’s the amazing grace of God. So, come to Jesus. Ask Him to forgive you. Believe He died on the cross to pay for all your sins. Trust Him.

"There are some unique aspects to abortion that often require a very special healing process. Most of the people in the church who’ve lost children to abortion have never really come to terms with it. There are a number of people hearing this message who’ve never told a single person they’ve had an abortion. They’ve suffered in silence. We are hoping to create a climate that lets them come out of the closet if that’s what they want to do.

"If you have suffered the loss of the unborn through miscarriage or abortion, we care about you. Look at the back of your worship guide. And you will see something
If you have suffered loss, you probably feel very much alone with the memories of your experience. The Cleveland Pregnancy Center (CPC) offers a confidential, seven week program called: H.E.A.R.T. (Healing the Effects of Abortion Related Trauma). This program uses the truth of God's Word to guide you through the specific steps of forgiveness, emotional healing and restoration. If you would like more information, call CPC at 440-243-2520."

I then encouraged our people to spend time reading through and meditating on Psalm 139, particularly verses 13-16.

I also encouraged our people to support adoption ministries in orger to help those women who decide not to raise their baby but who still choose to give brith rather than take a life. I encouraged them to check out Together for Adoption.

I also encouraged our people to support the Cleveland Pregnancy Center.

Finally, I encouraged our people to read Randy Alcorn’s book: Why Pro-Life? Caring for the Unborn and Their Mothers.

We closed our service by announcing that our Care Ministry and the Cleveland Pregnancy Center had extra women and men available up front after the service for prayer and counseling to help those who were seeking some comfort and healing because of their loss.

I am hoping that your church, too, will stand up for the unborn and provide a service for healing for those who have suffered a past loss.

Babies have value before they are born (6)

In Psalm 139 we see at least 7 important truths that teach us that babies have value before they are born. Look at what God’s word says. God forms us, knits us, makes us, shapes us, weaves us sees us plans us. All before we’re born. Knowing when life begins is not above our pay grade. Not if we hear the heart of God.

Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

We oppose abortion for the same reason we oppose slavery—it is a fundamental violation of human rights. We affirm the inalienable rights of all people. All people are “created equal,” not just “born equal.” (Randy Alcorn, ProLife Answers to ProChoice Arguments, Appendix H).

The concentration camps of Nazi Germany are a testimony to what happens when people start deciding who has the right to live and who doesn’t. The sign at Auschwitz says “Never Again.” We hope that someday our country will admit that abortion kills babies before they are born and will say “Never Again.”

The stakes are high. If the pro-choice people are correct, then the freedom to choose an abortion ought to be a basic civil right. But if the pro-life people are correct, then the almost 4,000 abortions that happen every day in America are human casualties, more than all the lives lost in the 9/11 destruction of the World Trade Center in NYC.

This isn’t an issue; it’s a baby. It’s not a choice; it’s a child. It’s not politics; it’s a precious human being created in the image of God.

Edmund Burke said, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” Abraham Lincoln said, “To sin by silence when they should protest makes cow-ards of men.”

Silence is never the solution. When churches are silent about abortion, we encourage it. Silence becomes a form of consent, a quiet permission. Let’s not be cow¬ards. Let’s stand up for truth; let’s reach out in compassion. Let’s make sure our public officials know where we stand on these issues.

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves.
Proverbs 31:8 (NIV)

Who is less capable of speaking up for themselves than little boys and girls who haven’t yet been born? If we don’t speak up for these innocent children, who will?

I grew up in the deep south in the 60s. In 1968, there were racial riots at my high school. I had friends on my high school basketball team who were black. But one thing I regret is that I didn’t do nearly enough. I was too into my own stuff. I didn’t speak up. I know I was just 15. But I wish I had done more to help with the civil rights movement.

We wonder, “How could it happen in our country that brave college students in Greensboro, NC — African-Americans — would sit at a lunch counter as bullies stamped out cigarettes in their hair, squirted mustard and ketchup in their faces, then kicked them while white policemen looked on laughing. Or how could it happen that black children and adults were sprayed by whites with high-powered fire hoses in Birmingham, Alabama? Or how could it happen that black people were falsely accused and hung and burned without a fair trial?” We wonder now, “How could something like that happen?”

I pray that we will look back someday — hopefully someday soon — and we’ll wonder about abortion, “How could something like that have happened?”

When that day comes, don’t you want to look back and be able to say, “I wasn’t silent. I didn’t hold back. I prayed. I gave. I spoke up.”

I agree with Jonathan Schaeffer of Grace Church in Middleburg Heights. In a message at the Cleveland Pregnancy Center Banquet this past spring, he said, “If I live to be a grandpa, it’s going to be difficult to explain to my grandkids when they ask, ‘Grandpa, were you alive when our country used to end the lives of unborn children?’" Like Jonathan, I want to be able to say that I did something. I don't want to be like that 15 year old kid who was just into his own stuff.

Don't forget. Babies have value before they’re born.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well (Psalm 139:14, ESV).

Babies have value before they are born (5)

In Psalm 139, we find 7 Hebrew words that teach us that babies have value before they are born. Here are the 6th and 7th words.

Before we are born God sees us.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance…
Psalm 139:16a

The Hebrew word for “saw” is ra’ah. The word literally means “to look at” or “to inspect.” So, the idea seems to be that in the process of seeing us in the womb, God is aware of everything that happens there. (TWOT - #2095)

We can pray, “You saw me before I was born. You watched my body parts grow. With your own eyes you saw my body being formed.”

Think about it, since God can see into the womb, God sees the destruction of life in every womb where an abortion takes place.

Of all the sins committed in the Old Testament, one stands out above the others in its utter abomination to God: the killing of children. Whether children offered to the demon god Molech then or the god of convenience and affluence today, God hates the killing of children. He says in Leviticus 20 that to kill children is “to defile my sanctuary and to profane my holy name.” He says in Proverbs 6 there are seven things that are detestable to Him. One of those is “hands that shed innocent blood.”

In 2 Kings 24, God says that He brought destruction on the nation Judah because of the evil of King Manasseh, for “he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood,” the blood of children.

In a “how to” manual, Abortion Practice, Dr. Warren Hern says, “A long curved Mayo scissors may be necessary to decapitate and dismember the fetus.” I recently watched a video of abortions taking place. To see the little dismembered arms and legs and heads is shocking.

I know we don’t want to read about these things any more than the German Christ-followers wanted to hear what was happening to Jews. But abortion is happening and we must face it. If we can’t face the truth in church, where can we face the truth? Please don’t get angry at me; get angry at the killing of innocent children and what legalized abortion has done to this country. (Randy Alcorn, A Sanctity of Life Message, www.epm.org.)

God sees what’s happening because He can see in the womb.

Before we are born, God plans us.

…in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
Psalm 139:16a

The Hebrew word for “formed” is yatsar. The word can be translated “fashioned” or “framed.” It’s describing how God devises something in His mind. It’s describing His preordained purposes. (TWOT - # 898)

We can pray, “Every day of my life moment was recorded in your book, was laid out before a single day had passed. Even before I was born, you had written out a plan for my life.”

We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2:10 (ESV)

Question: When were we His workmanship? Answer: Before we were born. Question: When was He preparing us for good works? Answer: Before we were born.

Without getting into a discussion about the sovereignty of God, I think it’s safe to say that God had plans for every little one whose life has ended prematurely.

Children are not the only victims of abortion. Mothers and fathers and grandparents and uncles and aunts and others are victims, too. You may think our children’s classes at CVC are full, but they are missing many children. Maybe one of them would have been your child’s best friend or future spouse. Maybe some would have been teachers, doctors, pastors, missionaries.

If you have been damaged by an abortion, you are not alone. Every weekend, our churches are full of damaged people. All of us have been damaged by the loss of those who should be here with us today. (Randy Alcorn, A Sanctity of Life Message, www.epm.org.)

Before we are born, God plans us.

Thrusting another sword into His side

You just have to read below what John Piper says in a 1981 sermon on Hebrews 13:4 about someone who willfully sins and does so because he says, "Well, after all, God is a forgiving God, right?"

"What would you say to a person about to commit a sexual sin because he was confident God would forgive him?

"I would say (and have said to such a person): 'If you believe that what you are about to do is sin, and you decide to do it because God has promised to forgive sin, then probably your decision will be evidence that you are not born again, you are not a Christian but are still 'in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity (Acts 8:23).'

"'Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?' Paul asks in Romans 6:1, 2, and answers, 'By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?'

"Those who are born of God and love Jesus cannot walk up to Jesus as he hangs on the cross and say, 'I know that you are suffering now for my sins and that it is your dying wish that I sin no more. But there's this one need that I have that I can only satisfy by sinning, so I hope you'll understand as I thrust this other sword into your side. There now. I sure am glad that every time I do that your blood forgives me.'

"Those who have been born of God cannot think like that.

"So all I have to say to a person before he chooses to commit sin is, 'Advance at your own peril. There may be no forgiveness, because you may be so decisively hardened by crucifying Christ afresh (Hebrews 6:6) that you will not be able to find genuine repentance anymore (Hebrews 12:16, 17).'"

Babies have value before they are born (4)

Psalm 139 contains 7 Hebrew words that teach us that babies have value before they are born. Here are words four and five.

Before we are born, God shapes us.

My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret…
Psalm 139:15a

We can pray, “You watched my bones grow while my body took shape, hidden in my mother's body.”

This is a different Hebrew word for “made” than the word in verse 14. It is ‘asa. This word means that God is taking the material that has been created in order “to fashion” or “to shape” it. So, the idea seems to be that God is actively shaping us in the womb. (TWOT - #1708)

Just google an image of a child in the womb at eight weeks old, when the earliest abortions take place. It won't look like a blob of tissue, does it? There is a measurable heartbeat twenty-one days after conception and measurable brainwaves at forty-nine days after conception. That means that every surgical abortion stops a beating heart and stops brain waves. (Randy Alcorn, A Sanctity of Life Message, www.epm.org.)

That’s taking a life. We have to let God finish what He’s shaping/making in secret.

Before we are born, God shapes us and He weaves us.

… intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Psalm 139:15b

“Depths of the earth” is a poetic expression for the darkness and secrecy of the womb.

The Hebrew word for “woven” is raqam. The word describes the weaving of a garment or needlework with many colors of threads. It literally means “to mix colors” or “to give variety to.” So, the idea seems to be that in the process of weaving us in the womb, God is creating an intricately beautiful and colorful work of art. (Gesenius’s Lexicon)

A skillful work of art is being described here. This same Hebrew word was used in Exodus 38:23 to describe what an artist in the Bible, Oholiab, did in weaving blue and purple and scarlet material together to make a fabric used in the Tabernacle, a portable place of worship that God’s people used in Old Testament days.

If you created a work of art in your home – a painting, a landscape, some pottery, a needlepoint – and someone came into your home or yard and destroyed it, you would feel violated. That’s the way God feels when someone invades a womb and desecrates His work of art – an unborn baby.