I also wanted to share some of the exciting numbers and stories from Easter 2013. From the Matching Fund Churches who reported, over 9,800 people attended a Matching Fund Church, and those same churches reported 329 decisions for Christ.

“We had an ‘Easter Basket Outreach’ after the morning service. Our church members stuffed Easter Baskets right after service with candy and toys and we walked through our neighborhood leaving them on the porches of every household in our community, with a note from the church that ready, ‘Happy Easter from Upcountry Church - We LOVE our neighborhood!!’ Some of the neighbors answered their door, so we were able to make personal contacts with several un-churched families.”

“We had our first ‘Rush to Sun Rise’ at 7am then breakfast, egg hunt, and our regular service at 11am. Beautiful relationships were started on Easter Day as we enjoyed breaking bread together.”

“A homosexual young man accepted Christ in our first experience. He can’t stop talking about it on facebook. It’s shaping up to be an awesome testimony!”

Option One- The child would live on the street by herself.

Option Two- The child would be placed in a group home or orphanage.

Option Three- The child would live with her family or with a loving, healthy adoptive family.

Which would you choose? Of course, it’s a no brainer! We all instinctively know that sending a child to live on the street is WRONG. Life in a group home or orphanage is better than living alone on the street, but the best place for a kid to grow up is in a family. Period.  And, the same holds true for new churches.

It seems strange to me that too often new church plant projects are treated like homeless children (sometimes referred to as “parachute drops”) or placed in a group home/orphanage environment (planted by organizations, denominations or networks). Having helped to start thousands of new churches, I’m convinced that the best place for a church to grow up is in a family environment where a “parent church” is available to lead and guide the new, infant church.

In fairness, most organizations are working overtime to reduce their number of homeless plants. But despite their best intentions, once in a while, an organization will send someone out with a “God bless you”, a pat on the back and little else. More often, homeless planters are those who have chosen to run away from home. Their homelessness is self-inflicted. The prognosis is not hopeful for these solo endeavors.

The traditional solution to homeless planting has been the group home/orphanage approach. An organization wearies of the high rate of failure experienced by homeless plants, so they create some institutional systems to provide structure and support for their plants. The challenge is that even the best group homes/orphanages have a disproportionate ratio of adults to kids. It’s really hard for any organization to provide a nurturing environment for all of its new churches – even if they focus on just one at a time. An orphanage approach is much better than settling for homelessness, but it’s not the best.

My experience has been that planting projects started as a family member have the best track record of thrivability and missional effectiveness. When a healthy church starts another church, it doesn’t guarantee success, but the probability of failure goes way down. Conversely, the possibility of long term ministry effectiveness goes way up! The “child church” benefits from the stability and strength of the “parent.”  The parent wants their child to succeed; so they pray for them, cheer for them and invest in them. Again, the best place for a church to grow up is in a family.

Application ideas:

If you are planting a church, look for a church to be your parent – it’s an increasingly common practice. I get calls every day from parent churches looking for “kids”. But, be sure you choose your parent carefully! Ask all the questions about the relationship up front, so you won’t be surprised later.

If you are leading an organization, look for ways to help churches under your umbrella to become parents. Leverage the scale and structures of your organization to make it easy for every church to become a parent. Specialize at helping kids find their parents!

Let’s put an end to homeless churches!

A Letter from a Church Planting Wife to her Husband

By Kasha Henley

Hey Babe,

It seems just like yesterday when you called me and said God is calling us to plant a church. I knew we were at a crossroads in our ministry and something was coming up but I didn’t think it was church planting. My first response to you was ‘no’. It wasn’t, “No, I won’t plant a church because I trust you and I want to be right where God wants us to be.” My response was ‘no’ to: playing the piano, singing, leading worship, leading women’s ministry, or leading anything in my case. I didn’t feel like I could fill that typical pastor’s wife role. The role of pastor’s wife seemed overwhelming and I had always heard you live in a fish bowl and people were just watching, looking, and waiting for you to succeed or fail. I didn’t want that for my family. So, that’s were I felt my role came into play. I wanted our kids to know Jesus. I wanted them to feel loved, a priority, protected, that they could be who they are, and that our home was a safe haven.

When we first planted the church our kids were 6,4, and 2. Can you believe that we were such a young little family? Time has gone by so fast. I want to say thank you for allowing me to be who God has called me to be, not forcing me into a role that needed to be filled. You allowed me to be a wife and mom first and serve in areas I felt comfortable. However, I also want to thank you for believing in me and gently nudging and praying for me to explore new things. You are always so good at encouraging, believing, and calling forth what you see in me when all I see is unwanted, not talented, not good enough, failure, unusable, lonely, and not needed.

You were the one who encouraged me when God would give me dreams of someone or something happening. You would say, “Kasha, you can do this with God’s strength.” I would kick and scream and say no I can’t, but I would still do it because I wanted to be obedient to God and to you when you would ask something of me.

Through your gentle nudging, encouraging, and believing in me I was able to preach on Mother’s Day, to pray for that lady who was crying uncontrollably, to send a text to that lady who seemed lonely and suicidal, to make that phone call to someone after a loved one passed away, and to visit a stranger in the hospital to pray with them. You also encouraged me when I wanted to stop leading the preschool ministry and women’s ministry – yes, the very thing I said I would not do. You never said you have to do it. You helped me process through why I was feeling this way and you asked how you could help me.

Please, never stop nudging, believing, and encouraging me. That’s what keeps me going sometimes. We both know we have had our not so good moments and areas we needed help, but I’m glad we started off this area on the right foot when we first started our church plant.

Join us next week for the rest of the letter.

Kasha and Brian Henley planted Journey Life Church in Holt, MI in 2007.  Brian is one of CMN Launch presenters. They have 3 kids,  Jordyn, Gabe, & Josiah Follow Brian on twitter @BrianJHenley.

Hey babe,

Can you believe God called us to plant a church? Every moment I think about what God is going to do in and through us I can’t contain myself. It’s like a fire that’s burning on the inside of me. I am so ready to go and win our city for Jesus and set it on fire with the Holy Spirit. I have so many great ideas about how this will all go down; in fact, I even had a dream about it last night. I know all things are possible because God is on our side. I just read that in Matthew 19:26.

But the truth is I won’t always feel this way. I won’t always think that we can change the world so I wanted to share four things that I think will help me if you remind me about them.

• You are simply a conduit
• You must add wood to the fire
• You need to be patient
• You need to sleep and dream again

You are simply a conduit
Probably after the long hours of prep and gallons of coffee drank from meetings at Starbucks I will need to be reminded that I am not the power source. See, at times I may just try and press through with my eloquent words and fancy ideas and begin to think that I got this. I may begin to think that I have the touch of Midas because everything we do turns to gold. And then it may happen. I’ll think, ‘Oh no, I got this’. Please remind me gently but firmly that I have nothing I am simply a conduit for God’s presence to flow through. I don’t change anyone. It’s Christ who does all the changing. I am simply a part of the vine like John 15 talks about.

You must add wood to the fire
Remember those long hours? Yeah, sorry about that. From meetings and research to message prep and building to securing new meeting space and more, the list is so long. Wow, my fire is getting dim. I don’t know when the last time was when I spent time in prayer and the word personally, but I am busy doing ministry. Every time we pray together we add wood to the fire. Every time you encourage me to pray and read the word personally I add wood to the fire. Every time we worship together we add wood to the fire. I will need you to say stop and add wood to the fire. Psalms 119:105 remind me that God’s word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Let’s add wood.

You need to be patient
Not every thing will happen on my time frame. Not every project will happen when I think it should and not every deadline will be met. Can you please remind me to have patience? To remember that God’s plan is better and His plan has His timing. God knows best when things should happen. Remind me to wait on Him and to trust His guidance. Isaiah 40:31 reminds me to wait on the Lord and to renew my strength. I may not like waiting but God knows best.

You need to sleep and dream again.
Yeah, those dreams I dreamed haven’t happened in awhile. Aside from the fact that I need to take better care of myself physically and get some sleep, I also need awaken the dreams that the Lord put in my heart. Ephesians 3:20 needs to be my theme verse once again. I need to dream crazy God driven dreams. I need to be reminded that it is OK to dream again.

You see, babe, we will change the world together as we follow God in church planting, and it will be the most exciting times of our lives. But please may we finish strong in our marriage, our family and our ministry. Each and every step we take is one step closer to Christ’s calling for us. We got this, baby. We= Us and God. Let’s do this.

Kasha and Brian Henley planted Journey Life Church in Holt, MI in 2007.  Brian is one of CMN Launch presenters. They have 3 kids,  Jordyn, Gabe, & Josiah Follow Brian on twitter @BrianJHenley.

Join us next week for a letter from a church planting wife to her husband.

“We raised over a thousand dollars and cut hundreds of patterns for this organization last night: SoleHope”

- Chad Rieselman -

Dary has been instrumental in the Church Planting movement in the US and abroad.

I hope you can learn something from our conversation.

What happens when God calls a staff member to plant a new church near the existing church? Pastors Adam Beal and Randy Fox from the Northwest Ministry Network tell the truth about churches planting churches when the daughter church is geographically close to the parent church.

Randy Fox is the Pastor of Spokane First Assembly http://spokanefirst.org/ and Adam Beal is the Pastor of Gateway Church http://gatewayspokane.org/

The Life at the End of the Tunnel

By Leah Leach

Have you ever seen that show, I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant?

It’s actually an entire series telling the stories of people who had babies without ever knowing they were pregnant.  I call it my train wreck show.  I want to turn away so badly, but with episodes like, “Baby in My Sweatpants,” really, who can resist?

Here’s the thing.  As crazy as it is to think about going through pregnancy without knowing it, there’s no way that you could go through labor without knowing it.  In fact, after going through labor three different times, I’m convinced that if you were in labor without realizing you were pregnant, you would think that you were dying.

The only thing that got me through labor (and the only reason that I went through it again . . . and again), was the promise that at the end of it, there was going to be a baby.  Having the expectation of new life in the midst of such pain somehow put things into a proper perspective.  It reassured me that, yes, this is pretty horrible right now, but it’s not going to last forever.  There’s a reason for it, and in the end, I will experience the joy of the new life that comes with it.

While I find it difficult to believe that you can be pregnant and not know it, I can think of several seasons in my life when I’ve been “pregnant” with a promise, and never knew.  At least, I never knew until the “labor pains” became so great that it seemed as if they were extinguishing life itself.

These painful seasons seemingly came out of nowhere, and often followed seasons of specific promise that God gave to me.

There was pain of fear and anxiety with a diagnosis of cancer following a season of exponential spiritual growth, making my faith “my own.”

There was the pain of rejection from a broken heart after God promised a future marriage and family.

There was the pain of abandonment during a lonely season when my husband and I moved our family across the country to the middle of Philadelphia where we knew no one after God spoke to us an exciting promise about planting a new church in a city in the U.S.

Each time, the pains were very real, and very confusing based on everything else that the Holy Spirit had been speaking to me.  In fact, they felt completely contrary to God’s promises.

“I’m choosing to live a life for you, and to make choices that honor you, and now I have a medical diagnosis of a deadly disease and a treatment plan ahead that includes some of my greatest fears???”

“I’m trusting You, God, with a plan for my future, and now I’m left holding the broken pieces of my heart???”

“We gave up everything to obey You, God, and now we are completely alone and wondering if we really heard you at all???”

Even if I couldn’t always sense it, however, God was with me in the midst of each dark place.  Like He’s done time and again throughout the ages, He used each crisis of faith as an opportunity to reveal a new name and aspect of His character.  At the end of each one, there was a fulfillment of a promise through the anguish, and new life to celebrate that was almost appreciated even more because of the pain.

In the middle of disease, I knew God as my Peace, inexplicably surpassing and encompassing me through any diagnosis, surgery, or doctor’s appointment.

In the middle of heart sickness, I knew God as my Shepherd, guarding and protecting my heart and dreams far better than I ever could.

In the middle of Philadelphia, I knew God as my Everlasting God.  He was unchanging and constantly present regardless of how I felt.

I am several years removed from each of these circumstances, so I’m able to look back on each one from a place of healing.  The pain of each wound has been replaced with a scar of remembrance.  Just as I do not look at my children and feel overwhelmed with the pain of childbirth, I no longer look at these seasons and feel inundated with grief.  I remember the pain. (Just like I remember the childbirth . . . someone once told me that you forget it when you see the baby.  I now call that person a liar.)  But the pain no longer consumes me.

Perhaps it’s this perspective that is the most critical to me now.  I need to remember, more than ever, that my God will bring healing.  The last six months have been the most painful season of my life that I’ve ever experienced.

My father, Bruce Edwards, was in an accident on the first day of our family vacation that left him in a coma for ten days until he passed away from the injuries.  The void that he’s left in our family and lives feels almost insurmountable.  I’ve experienced grief and anguish like I’ve never known.  It’s caused me to question all that I know about God, His promises, and His character.

The day before his accident, however, my dad shared with me his excitement and anticipation for something great that God was going to do in our family that week.  He spoke a promise to me that I’ve held on to every day since.

“Leah, bad things are going to happen, but God’s goodness will prevail through it all.  Don’t ever doubt that.”

And so, in the midst of the labor pains that feel like they will never end, I press on, holding on to the hope of the new life that I believe will come of it.  I trust that God will reveal a new name, that He will be my Restoration for all that is irreparably broken.

Five weeks after my dad’s accident, my first son, Caleb Bruce Leach was born. (I knew it was coming.  No future Discovery Health episode for me.)  To be honest, I was almost dreading his birth, anticipating some of the most bittersweet moments I had yet experienced.  What I found, however, was that Caleb brought me all the sweet without the bitter.  His life was the start of a healing balm to the deepest wound my heart had ever known.  When I looked at my son for the first time, I saw the promise of a life that will carry on the legacy left by his Granddad.

Life’s tunnels are dark.  This one is the darkest that I’ve ever known.  I’m holding out, however, for the life at the end of this tunnel.  Both of my Fathers promised me that it would come.

Leah is the Lead Pastor’s wife at City Life Church in Philadelphia and mom to three kids under 4 years old.  She and her husband Brad planted City Life in September 2011.    Find Leah on Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/Leahleach?fref=ts> , Twitter <https://twitter.com/leahleach>  @leahleach and her blog at leewards.blogspot.com <http://leewards.blogspot.com/>

Join us for the very first Plant Leadership! It’s going to be a good one.

… With the one and only amazing DARY NORTHROP.

What is Plant Leadership?

Plant Leadership is an opportunity for you to interact with leaders in the world of Church Planting. CMN will be hosting a Google Hangout where Dary will share a short leadership lesson that he is learning, followed by a Q&A opportunity, where you can ask Dary anything you’d like.

Who is Dary Northrop? How dare you even ask?!…

Dary has been the Senior Pastor of Timberline Church in Fort Collins, Colorado, since November 1986. He is also on the CMN Lead team which helps give oversight to CMN. Dary and  Timberline have helped to directly plant 5 new faith communities in CO and he has been instrumental in the planting of many other churches worldwide.

The hangout will take place on Monday, April 29th at 2pm Central.

If you would like to be a part of this FREE event to find out more and register here.