Jesus Fame

My wife and I came to Prineville in the fall of 2001 to start a Thursday evening Bible study that would ultimately become Calvary Chapel Crook County. (we named it that because the area is known by the county more than the city)

Our first Sunday morning service was held on May 5th 2002. We had about 30 people that first Sunday and we quickly grew to 50 people crowding into our little elementary school library (the chairs were Lilliputian made for people without years of carbs in their backside).

After our move to Crook County Middle School in the fall of that year we grew to about 75 people and like most church planters I thought we were going to have a mega church in no time.

However after a few years in the Middle School, and several original families gone for one reason or another, we were still about 75 people and I was getting discouraged.

Why isn’t the church growing? Why do new people come once and never return? Why do key families have to leave the church? Why is this so stinkin’ hard?

It was about this time that the Lord spoke to me and gave me the focus and vision that is at the core of who we are as a church to this day. A vision that looked beyond the 4 walls of our church to a lost community that would much rather sleep in and watch football on Sunday than sing songs to a God they don’t know and listen to some young punk teach a book they don’t believe.

The Lord showed me that He doesn’t need a lot of people to accomplish this plan. He could reach our entire community with a few people who were on fire for Him.

“I am the Lord, and there is no other; there is no God besides Me.” (Isaiah 45:5)

He began to put big ideas upon my heart that we didn’t have the man power or budget to pull off.

One of the ideas was an outreach to sportsmen. Hunting is huge here…(shocking right). For this area where less than 10% attend church hunting is the god of choice. I would say that 80-90% of the men (and many women) in this community hunt. Therefore what better way to reach this community with the gospel than by appealing to what is closest to their heart. Quest Outdoors was born out of this vision and several conversations with one of our leaders, Shawn Jones, who owns and operates a hunting/fishing guide business called Go West Outfitters.

Shawn and I had the idea of creating a banquet that would look a lot like other sportsman’s banquets (like Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, or Oregon Hunters Association).

The first Quest Outdoors banquet was held in 2004. We put together an awesome catered dinner, a top notch speaker in the field, world class taxidermy and thousands of dollars in prizes. There was no way a church of 75 people should be able to pull this off. But not only did we pull it off but we had about 250 people come our first year and it has doubled since. Each year men and women who would never darken the door of our church come to this event and hear the message of the gospel in a way that meets them right where they’re at.

This local outreach which has become a yearly event has motivated our church to do several other events and outreaches in our community…and has given our church the reputation of the “little church that does big things.”

I remember when I first heard someone describe our church this way. I was offended. Calling a church planter’s work small is like kicking him in the groin. But as I thought about it I realized that it was perfect because people were giving God the glory as they recognized that our little church with puny numbers and a tiny budget couldn’t possibly pull this off without divine intervention.

1 Cor. 1:26-31

Over the years our church has grown but we continue to take steps of faith taking risks for the sake of the Kingdom.

Many of these outreaches and events have bombed big time…some of them have been incredible successes. I will talk more about these things in Part 2 of this post.

grace…ryan

Yesterday I was talking to a friend of mine who used to be my assistant pastor and is now planting a church in Walla Walla, WA.

I am on his board helping him make financial decisions while his church is being established.

I was encouraging him to begin to instill in his small group of people the vision that he has to grow the church and reach the community with the gospel. Often small churches suffer from the “I don’t want a big church” syndrome. The reason we came here was due to the size. We like the small atmosphere and that we know everybody’s name (and their birthdays…and their social security numbers)

The tendency for small churches in small towns is to get comfortable with the few families that are coming and to never want that to change. As a pastor of a small church you must begin to instill your vision to reach the community early on because the longer you wait the more difficult it will be to convince Mr. and Mrs. home school parent that this is a good idea.

Here are some practical ways you can do this.

1. Talk about it from the pulpit (or music stand or folding chair turned backwards) – duh! Share your heart for the lost as it comes up in Scripture. Encourage the people to see themselves as missionaries in their neighborhoods, workplaces, and families.

2. Think big - Encourage the people that you can reach this community with the few people you have right now. God doesn’t need a thousand people to make an impact. I have been saying this since our church first began. As we’ve grown from 25 to 50 to 75 to 100 to 150 and beyond I’ve been telling our body that we can reach this city right here, right now.

3. Pour into men – Without solid mature men with leadership gifts your church won’t be healthy so begin meeting with 1 or 2 guys that have potential for leadership. Share your heart with them. Tell them your vision to reach the community. Bounce stuff off of them. Listen to their ideas. Get their opinions. Pray with them.

4. Start small – Often small churches with tiny budgets and small minded pastors get intimidated to do outreach. “We can’t afford it!” “We don’t have enough people!” Yes and if you keep saying that it will continue to be true. Think of creative ways that your small fellowship can reach out with the love of Jesus. Maybe it’s raking leaves in a local neighborhood and sharing the gospel with the people as they stand on their porch dumbfounded that someone is willing to do what they’ve been dreading for weeks. For more unique ideas see Steve Sjogren’s book 101 Ways to Reach Your Community.

In my next post we are going to look at how little churches can do big things.

I remember pouring over the map trying to decide where I wanted to move my wife and I to plant a church.

I wanted to go to a big city…because lots of people equals big church and every church planter wants to have a big church. Not to mention big cities have cool stuff to do.

However the Lord didn’t open up doors in any big cities instead he directed us toward a very small town about 20 miles from where I was a volunteer assistant pastor.

Prineville, OR. population 10, 190 (you know you live in a small town when you know the exact number of residents)

It was actually about 8,500 people when we moved here but it’s growing…or at least it was before the economy went in the toilet.

So over the last six plus years I’ve learned a few things about church planting and pastoring in a small town that I would like to share with you if you’re interested.

Here are four things I’ve learned about church planting in a small town-

1. Be authentic – small town folks can recognize a phony from a mile away (from one end of town to the other). Be real. Be genuine. Be yourself.

2. Be realistic - every church planter wants to have a mega church…but if you’re planting a church in a town smaller than many megas you might want to reevaluate your measure of success.

3. Be patient – even though it’s a fruit of the Spirit us pastor types tend to be pretty impatient. We like to see instant results but planting a church in a small town can take years to establish and to see substantial fruit.

4. Be broad (in your focus) – As a small town church planter your vision should be to reach the entire city. You aren’t trying to reach a certain part of town, or a specific demographic. You need to instill in the folks that are coming that you can reach this whole city right now with the few people that are coming.

I plan on writing more thoughts on church planting and pastoring in a small town so stay tuned.

I’ve been a Sonics fan for as long as I can remember. But with their recent move to Oklahoma I’m officially done with them.

So…after living in Oregon for 10 years and putting up with obnoxious Blazers fans all around me I’ve finally caved and become one myself.

With Greg Oden back and stars like Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge primed for another great season I’m excited to get on board with this young exciting team.

The Blazers open up their season tonight on TNT at 7:30pm against the Lakers.

BrianD who writes a weekly linkathon post for the Phoenix Preacher turned me on to this lady, Anne Jackson who wrote a blog post called Keeping Your Mouth Shut where she gives people the opportunity to say things they would never feel comfortable saying in church or around other Christians.

So I decided to write a post where pastors and Bible teachers can say things they would never say from the pulpit or in their Bible study…or maybe things you have said but took flack for or regret.

Now I’m not talking about obvious filth…just things that might ruffle feathers.