One of my favorite books on leadership is “Who Moved My Cheese” by Dr. Spencer Johnson.  It is a book about the importance of change in our lives and how we can better adapt to these changes, both expected and unexpected. While God never changes, the ways He wants to fulfill your vision of your church does.  I feel that a lot of times, we get in such a routine that we miss out on the fact that God has moved the cheese.  We fall so in love with a program or process that we miss out on the new thing that God wants to do.

One of the most difficult things that I have faced as a church planter is truly identifying who our church is.  I knew whom we wanted to be based on where I had been.  I saw great churches and I was all about doing what they did (service and programming–wise) to get their kind of results.  These results are what we are after by the end of the day.  We want to grow big and successful churches as pastors (we kind of have big egos).  We all have the dreams and desires to be the next Church of the Highlands, Gateway Church, Elevation, or Healing Place Church.  While these churches are doing amazing things for their communities, these churches have one thing in common – they are different from each other.

When we started Coastal, we were coming from a great model in Bayside Community Church in Bradenton, FL with Pastor Randy Bezet.    We loved how they ran their services and small groups, how the church was growing, and how their structure was set up.  We thought that we could just come to Ft. Lauderdale and do the exact same things the exact same way.  We were in for a culture shock!  The things that made Bayside great in our eyes did not translate very well in Ft. Lauderdale.  The cultural makeup of this community was way different than the community we came from.  We needed to step out of our comfort zone and into the unknown to discover what the right fit for our community and our church was.

We start church plants so many times with others’ methods or even our own programs.  These can be good things and it is important to have these programs, systems, and successful ways of doing things. However, we have to be continuously learning and adapting our church to the culture of our community. If your community changes, you have to be willing to adapt to this change to be effectively reaching your community for Christ.

I know that it is easier to race around the pathways of the past that we are comfortable and familiar with rather than discovering the new pathways of effectiveness for our culture and community.  But our presumptions that the way we know or what everyone else is telling us prevents the breakthroughs that we need to discover in our lives and in our church.  These breakthroughs allow us to go to new levels of leadership God is building in us through our church.

So much of what God wants for your new, existing, or re-launching church is in you rather than through you.  God is trying to do a new work in your life.  He can’t do that work through your old ways.  Let me re-emphasize this point – the ways of a successful church are not a negative thing.  What we need to do is identify the principles of their success and determine how these principles fit into the culture and DNA of what God is doing in your communities. It is better to do this than just trying to take something from over there in that church and making it fit here in your church.  It is like trying to put a square peg in a round hole; the piece will not fit no matter how hard you try.

First, I believe in the mission of this church. I’m proud to be a part of a church that cares about reaching people who are broken, lost and  far from God. I’m proud to be a part of a place where the mission is to reach people for Christ and help them develop a relationship with their heavenly father who wants to know them so badly. Every time I hear a story about a family put back together or a teenager who decides to follow Christ or a man who finally gets back in church, I know that my contributions played a small part in that. People’s lives are being changed and this church is a part of that! Jesus said that our treasure would follow our heart, so because my heart is with this church, I want to financially support it.

Secondly, I want to be an example to the next generation. I’m so tired of hearing people complain about the younger generation…they are just following our example! I don’t want selfish children, caring only about their iPods, clothes, cars, and friends. I want the next generation to care about other people and that’s not gonna happen by accident…I have to be intentional about modeling that lifestyle. I cannot tell them to care about others and then spend 100% of my paycheck on our own needs and wants. Parents and adults, we’ve got to be responsible for teaching our kids to be generous, and we can’t do that if we are not generous ourselves.

Thirdly, I give because God commands me to give. In the Old Testament, God commanded his people to tithe, and obedience wasn’t an option. In the New Testament, Jesus talks a lot about giving and money. Paul writes about money. He tells Christians this: “The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” Every month, we automatically give to our church because that honors God. We want to honor God, even when it’s difficult, even when things are tight. There have been times that we’ve gone without something, but we never cancel the contribution to the church. I’d rob the mortgage company before I robbed God.

Fourth and finally, I give out of response for all that God has done in my life.  Giving for me isn’t a have to thing, but a get to.  I am constantly reminded about what my life was like before Jesus and how messed up I was.  My natural response because of what God has done in my life is I want to give Him every part in my life, which includes my stuff and money.

I do all of this online.  I set up a profile on our website and chose to make my monthly contribution automatic.  It’s convenient, and it keeps me from forgetting to do what’s really important to me.

I want to encourage you to automate the important by setting up your online giving profile today.  If you have never done so you can get started by clicking here.

My journey over the past 2 years of planting Coastal Community Church has be an incredible learning and growing experience for me.  I had the privilege of being part an phenomenal church plant, Bayside Community Church, for 7 years.  Over those years I grew as a leader, a husband, a friend and a pastor.  Those years at Bayside helped to prepare me for planting our church in Sept 2009.  Launching out to plant a church was not something I took lightly, I sought counsel from those who I trusted and who I knew would tell me the truth and give me good wisdom on my journey.   My Pastor, Randy Bezet, said “if you can do anything else TJ, the do something else”.  He said “I believe in you and I know you will be successful but I know the road ahead of you and believe me it’s not easy”.  And today I would give that same advice to anyone considering planting a church… Tip #1: If you can do anything else, do it!  

Once my wife, Shayla, and I made the decision to plant Coastal, we had to find a location!  We knew we wanted to stay in Florida and thought we would go somewhere that would be easy, a place where we knew people.  We had 3 places in mind: Tampa, Cape Coral, & Port St. Lucie.  We already had relationships in these areas and knew it would make it an easy transition…but God had other plans.  In a series of “God” events we ended up deciding on Coconut Creek, which is a suburb of Ft. Lauderdale.  We knew 1 family (and didn’t know them very well) so we moved to Ft. Lauderdale in June of 2009 and launched our church in Sept of 2009.  Not a time frame I recommend.  TIP #2: Give yourself time to build a launch team & if possible, plant in an area where you know people!.  We were able to scrape together a team of 30 people (including kids and probably family pets).  Luckily we came from a church plant and a portable church environment so we kind of knew what to expect.  But it was still Chaos.

Here is a mistake we made in our launch process:
- In an effort to get our church launched in a short period of time we put people in positions quickly.  Not the way to go!!!  Tip #3: You should always be slow to hire or put people in positions.  Make sure they have the same heart and vision your church does.  It will save you long term, believe me, this one thing was one of the most detrimental mistakes we made.  Make sure they fit the heart and DNA of your church, because talent isn’t everything (but it’s good). Side Note: one great piece of advice we received was: The people you start with will probably not be the people you will end up with in a few years. (it freed us to know it’s ok if people leave)

Something that helped us in our launch process with our team:
Tip #4: Under-promise and Over Deliver!  Don’t ever Over Promise and Under Deliver.  You will set yourself up to fail.
Tip #5: Celebrate the Wins (large and small)  People need to know what to celebrate and what is important to your ministry.  Share what you see as “wins” when they happen, big or small.  What you celebrate get’s repeated.

Continuing our story….On our Launch day we had 357 people show up at church!!!  We were so excited!!!  And we lead our church so well that the next few months we grew our church all the way to 63 people.  Guess how we were feeling…

Next thing I learned:
Tip #6: Don’t try to be someone else.  It’s ok to be you!  I thought I needed to do everything how we did things at the church I came from, I thought to be good I need to preach like Pastor Randy and I need to grow my church to x # of people because that’s how they did it.  But God was breaking me, stripping me of pride.

Tip #7: Let God Lead (I know it’s common sense) I thought if I just do xyz then I will be successful and it’s good to have a plan don’t get me wrong, but let God lead.  Prov 16:9 Many are the plans in a man’s heart but the Lord directs his path.  I learned that activity doesn’t lead to growth, leading people to God leads to growth.  I needed to let go of my thoughts and plan to let God do what he wanted to do.  Have a plan but allow God to change it.  I believe the first 2 years of our church plant was more about what God wanted to do in us rather than building the church.

Once we learned those lessons God began to grow the church.  We got the right people on the bus and that made a huge difference.  We began to cultivate a culture of serving, authenticity, and just simply loving people no matter where they are in life.  We believe in serving our community and getting outside the “walls” of the church and really being the Church to the community and it has created an amazing culture within our church.  Since being 60 people in 2009 we have doubled in size each year.  Going into 2012 we averaged 300+ people in attendance. This year we have already seen over 75 people give their lives to Christ.  7,000 people from our community enjoyed our Community Easter Egg Hunt – Eggstravaganza. Our volunteer base has doubled, people are connecting in authentic community & growing in their relationship with God through small groups, and lives are being changed!  This is only the beginning of the amazing journey of Church Planting.

• Upgrading our children, youth and main auditorium with new technology. This has been a big need for the past couple of years and we’re looking forward to upgrading. ($12,000)

• Church planting in Kwekwe, Zimbabwe. We’re partnering with Children’s Cup to plant a Coastal Community Church in Kwekwe focused on reaching those far from Jesus in one of the largest cities in Zimbabwe. They have already gathered 75 people to start and are just waiting for us to partner with them. ($12,000)

• We want to ramp up our local outreach efforts here to a whole new level in 2012. We have more outreaches, more events and more opportunities to reach those far from God with the life-transforming message of Jesus. ($13,000)

On December 18, 2011, we will receive the gift offering during our weekend service. We’re providing special giving envelopes and encouraging everyone to come prepared to give on that day. I am stepping out in faith and believing God for $37,000 in this years Greatest Gift offering.

If you’re going to be out of town on December 18th, or if you’d like to go ahead and donate now, you can do that here. It’s safe, secure and simple to use.

Please pray about participating and jump in with us. God has given us a great mission, and we’re blessed to be able to join Him in reaching our community for Christ and advancing the Gospel around the world.

• Our career to keep up.
• Our spouse to keep happy.
• Our kids to raise.
• Our relationship with God to grow.
• Our family to maintain.
• Our education to continue.

And on and on the list can continue.  How do we continue to go through life and keep our head above the water?  What puts things in perspective for us to help us choose between what is good and what is best?

So my question is, what do you do to determine what you will and won’t do?