After almost 7 years since planting Kaleo there are a few things I’ve been learning and thought I’d share. These are not in order, nor is it a comprehensive list. These have simply been on my mind lately.

1- Church planting is often an exercise in idolatry.

• An Idol is something our hearts have built to replace our affection, security, acceptance, joy and approval we have in Jesus.
• The cure is the Gospel where I find that my acceptance with the Father is purely by grace and not how successful our church is.
• Jesus question to Peter in John 21:15-17 is a penetrating question. Simon, son of John, do you love me? A white-hot, burning love for the glory of Jesus will displace idols that our hearts continually manufacture.
• Our love for Jesus has to be more intense and powerful than the love for the idea of our church plant.

2- The Church is not a stage to showcase our gifts.

• If I view the church as a way in which my gifts are to be exercised, I can unwittingly fall into the trap of thinking the church is a stage for me to show myself off. The lights shouldn’t be on us, we exist as lights to show off the beauty of Christ.
• Too many young men and women want to plant a church or be part of a church plant so that they can show off how gifted they are. But God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble.
• If we’re willing to simply wash the feet of the disciples and serve the Bride of Jesus, we’ll ensure that we keep Jesus in the spotlight and not ourselves. The church doesn’t exist for me to be made much of. The Church exists to make much of Jesus.

3- Never forget that it is Jesus that will build His Church.

• In Matthew 16:18 Jesus says to Peter, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” There is much controversy about what role Jesus was giving Peter and how this has played out historically through Apostolic succession. But this often misses the point. Even if Jesus was saying that Peter is the first Apostle, it is still Jesus that is the one who promises to build His church. Though He may use Peter (a miracle in itself), it is Jesus who builds and it is Jesus who gives victory against the gates of hell, not Peter. Not Paul. Not James. Not Augustine. Not Luther. Not Calvin. Not Spurgeon. Not Piper. And most certainly not you or me.
• If we forget this, we will be plagued with a messiah complex that will crush us and the church we’re planting.

4- Be more about what you are and less about what you’re not.

• When I first planted Kaleo I was in heavy deconstruction mode. I was deconstructing what it meant to be a Christian. I was deconstructing the Church. And I was spending a majority of my time reading and thinking about what I’m not rather than what I am. This unfortunately produced a tone I my communicating that was polemical. In continuously speaking about what Kaleo wasn’t I became skilled in sharing that with others. The problem was that they needed to hear what we were more than what we weren’t. Since I couldn’t articulate it, neither could they. We became an anti-this or that cool church.
• The more the Gospel began to be massaged into my heart, the more I realized the importance of sharing the beauty of Jesus and what He’s called the church to be. Merely complaining about what it isn’t only leaves a discontented vacuum.
• If Jesus is building His church and the church exists beyond our local church, than I should be very careful tearing anything down for I might be fighting against His work. Our posture in criticism should always be characterized by humility. If we’re honest we should confess how far we still are from being a perfect gathering of perfect people.

5- A missional leader should desire influence, not control.

• If we want neat and tidy churches, we’ll tend towards control. But missional churches are never neat or tidy. Instead they are messy and often unkempt because they allow growth to occur organically as they push the missional agenda to the fringes.

6- Plant churches that grow planters organically.

• Anyone looking to plant a church should be willing to get involved in an existing (and recent) church plant to learn what it looks like. This means we may plant fewer churches, but if we train longer (specifically church plant training) we’ll end up with a larger movement because we won’t have as many failures.

7- We believe in sola Scriptura, no sola pastora

• We should fight with all our might to ensure that our people realize we are a team of leaders. This will effectively displace the guru mentality that assumes all problem are solved and solutions given only by one leader.
• We should never be the bottleneck for mission. If we are, we are demonstrating we’re controlling, unable to reproduce, or don’t trust other people to make significant decisions.

But this requires…

8- We are all living for the same mission and vision together.

• If our agendas are divided then we’ll find our mission stagnated. This doesn’t mean a homogenous expression of mission, it simply means we agree with the foundational truths of Gospel-Community-Mission.

9- We have to be willing to lead in community not above it.

• The days of pastors acting as a CEO and giving orders from the top down should be well behind us. The truth is we all tend towards telling others what they should do before we’re actually doing it ourselves. Community and mission are two ways of being that every planter and leader must be willing to demonstrate. If not, reproducibility and discipleship simply will not happen.

10- Seek outside counsel from leaders who have gone before you.

• Be willing to submit your thoughts, ideas, and decisions to your community as well as seeking the counsel of older men and women that have loved Jesus longer than yourself and share similar values.