I think God is good even when people are not. I think a simple church can make all the difference in a person’s life, and a complicated one can actually harm spiritual growth. I think the Bible is true though often hard to understand and just about anyone can learn to do just about anything.

I choose a growth mindset and a positive attitude (most of the time). I’ve been in school since I was 5 and held a full-time job since I was 15.Life has taught me some interesting lessons.

Some compliments, education and family stats on the left, along with a few photos and interesting quotes. Below, you can find a bulleted list of my work experiences and some thoughts on what I’ve learned (arranged chronologically). 

1. Lead Planter, Austin Hope Church
   

2. Nehemiah Professor of Church Planting
   

3. Director, Nehemiah Project Church Planting Center
   

4. Director, Cecil B. Day Center for Church Planting
   

5. New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, 2004-2009
   

6. Missionary, North American Mission Board, 2004-2009
   

7. Founding Pastor, cottonwood church, albuquerque, 1997-2004
   

8. Pastor, parkridge baptist church, fort worth, 1993-1995
   

9. Pastor, pleasant grove baptist church, decatur, tx, 1991-1993
   

10. President, allen design/build, austin, 1985-1990
    

If you insist on a resume, just ask.

President, allen design/build, austin, 1985-1990

I learned that God turns tremendous loss into a lifetime of rewards. My wife, Janet, and I started the business during an economic slump when I was laid off from a high paying job with a large residential home builder. A few weeks before the lay-off we bought our first home (at 11 percent interest!), a new car, our neighbor shot himself, and Janet became pregnant with our first child. Janet’s faith during all that chaos led me to get serious about following Christ.

I started trying to build custom homes but the market was too soft. So I bought a Mac and morphed the company to design and remodel homes and businesses. I learned not to quit and that if I genuinely helped people, they would hire me. I read and listened to countless hours of Lewis Timberlake and Zig Ziglar’s motivational material, read and reread Dale Carnegie, started thinking positively, and participating in church. I soon concluded that positive thinking is very closely connected to faith in God.

The business took off, but only after I committed to give God 10 percent of our profits--I am not kidding. The company grew to $500,000 annual sales, and we had a nice income in 1980s dollars. I learned that we did not have a money problem, we had an idea problem.

Nothing teaches a person to manage money and people like owning a business. I learned both. I also learned time management and how to create and develop a brand.

I learned that goodwill costs very little and pays very well. I learned about the principle of low-hanging fruit: simple, little things that make customers love you like cleaning up the job site every day.

Pastor, pleasant grove baptist church, decatur, tx, 1991-1993

Just before I was called to Pleasant Grove, the church deposed their Pastor for the first time in 127 years. It was the right thing to do, but it dropped their attendance to around 30 and no one in the community was interested in their message.

I learned to trust God’s people (and John Maxwell!). More than that, I learned the value of a mentor--mine was Annie Oates. She was almost old enough to be my grandmother, and along with several of her family members, she led the church. Usually when I tell about Annie, people get nervous thinking that she was some kind of dysfunctional, self-styled prophetess. Annie was pure gold, and I cannot think of a better place to learn to lead a church than Pleasant Grove under her gentle guidance. Annie led very quietly and respectfully. She taught me how to gain the congregation’s trust, learn what was on their minds, and how to time changes.

Annie, her nephews (the Deacons), and I would discuss things that needed to be done on Sunday afternoons after I visited people and conducted door-to-door (more like ranch-to-ranch) evangelism. Sunday night, our family drove an hour home to Ft. Worth. While I spent the week in classes, Annie spent her time getting things done. The people of the church held things together, and they worked alongside Christ to grow the church while I learned to preach and lead volunteers. I devoured every cassette tape produced by Maxwell, Hybels, and Warren--they taught me the value of wise instructors even if those instructors live far away. By 1993, attendance was 80-100 and we led a dozen or more people to Christ. Despite the good results, we felt a strong leading to go to Parkridge Church in Ft. Worth.

Pastor, parkridge baptist church, fort worth, 1993-1995

The big lesson at Parkridge was on the faithfulness of God. The church was not healthy when we arrived. A neighbor three blocks away told me he thought it was a funeral home. I learned to persevere.

When we started at the church, the attendance was 30-40 and no one could remember the last conversion. By 1994, attendance was steadily over 100 and the church was recognized as an evangelism leader. The older people in the church began to feel threatened by the new people, and you can imagine how difficult that was to manage. I learned that people do what makes sense to them at the time, and that it does not need to make sense to me. I learned to be very careful to whom one grants status and to have clear standards of conduct. Coming out of Parkridge, I learned that a set of shared values (the Heart Attitudes) makes all the difference when people feel threatened and want things their way.

The church grew, but I was exhausted. I felt led to complete my doctorate, and get involved at Hope Community Church in Ft. Worth. At Hope, Harold Bullock helped me understand my calling to start a church in a place where people were church-challenged.

Founding Pastor, cottonwood church, albuquerque, 1997-2004

I learned to plant a church! I learned why everyone since Paul says that planting churches is the best way to expand Christ’s kingdom. I learned that people who shun the established churches in their area (unless there’s a funeral or wedding) will attend, join, and become outstanding disciples at a new church. New people connect to Christ and his followers at new churches. I learned that I did not need to know everything to start--I just needed to have faith, a good attitude, and a teachable spirit.

Most cathartic, I learned that I must organize my day around prayer,  and that character counts all the time.

Cottonwood taught me to constantly evaluate and let a plan evolve to become something God can use. I learned to listen to people to learn how they understand the Gospel. I learned to delegate more than I ever thought possible--including keeping tabs on attendance, baptisms, and the money. I learned to communicate, communicate, communicate! Set goals and get buy-in from the person doing the work, delegate authority, hold people accountable, and follow up. Spend chunks of time with people, helping them follow Christ.

I learned to be too busy doing the right things to worry about the numbers. We started the church with God and three families. It grew to somewhere between three and four hundred, but we never could really tell. Since almost all of our crew came from a church-challenged background, we never got more than a couple hundred together for a Sunday worship, but 400 or more came to big events. Another fifty or sixty would gather midweek, often not the same people who attended on Sundays. Small groups started and disbanded quickly to suit peoples’ needs, so it was almost impossible to maintain an accurate count, but I think it’s safe to say that about half our folks attended one.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that equipping and pushing leaders out the door to start small groups and new churches pays dividends. When people say that you cannot out-give God, they usually mean, “you give me some money, and God will give it back to you.” We learned to give people and money away and God replaced it. We always gave away ten percent of our offerings and helped six churches start in a six year span.

I learned how easily the Gospel can overcome cultural differences. Janet and I also learned that we could live someplace besides Texas and love it. One nice thing about living outside the Bible belt was the lack of political infighting in the churches. That’s not to say that the devil gave us no problems.

New Mexico is a haven for Wiccans, Pagans, sorcerers, and animists. Spiritual warfare is real, and the primary tactic in it is to live in a way to never give the devil a foothold (Eph 4:27). Demons can torment people, even Christians (1 Tim 4:1), but God is faithful to the prayers of men and women who put him first. God fights for his people and his churches. Cottonwood became the church of our dreams, but God led me to New Orleans to train church planters.

seminary professor, new orleans, 2004-2009

I’ve learned the difference between a field driven strategy and an administration driven strategy. One makes it easier on the guy on the front lines; the other makes it easier for the guy in the front office. Guess which one God likes (Mt 7:12, Phi 2:3-4).

What I teach is not nearly as important as what the students learn. When I started, the program had about a half dozen students and our field partners (our customers) were not standing in line to hire them. Today, 70-80 students are in the program and the office receives get at least one contact per week asking for a church planter, which is more a reflection on the dedication of my students than anything I offer. I was awarded tenure in 2009, so I guess it was working.

When I started, even though I came off the field, I really had no clue what my students or partners needed. So I traveled. I visited former students to tell me their seminary experiences pro and con. I asked them to gripe, and I asked them to tell me what I should teach the next group of church planters. Church planters told me what our program needed to cover: (1) how to develop a strategy to reach an area for Christ, (2) how to develop leaders, and (3) how to conduct spiritual warfare. I immediately revised our church planting curricula to answer those three needs.

As for what they liked and disliked about seminary, all our alums had the same strong opinion--they HATED straight lectures with no time to interact with classmates or the professor. I laughed--their complaints were the same ones I had when I went to seminary. Nothing changed! Dale Carnegie was right about influencing people: they do not want to know what I think, they want to know what they think! It seems that the secret to adult learning is to get the listener’s ideas and encourage him or her toward biblical, logical conclusions.

I studied how adults learn and started teaching to communicate. I use a white board extensively to aid visualization, and I facilitate constant discussion. I give students activities that reinforce biblical principles. I ask for (and accept)  feedback on how well listeners catch the lesson. As a result, my student satisfaction ratings skyrocketed.

While traveling, I also made a point to meet with one or two field partners. I  asked them to talk to me about the biggest problems that cause church planters to fail. Their answers were surprisingly consistent. Two involve strategy, two involve attitude, and all four can be assessed and taught. (1) Unrealistic expectations that the church will grow faster and larger than community receptivity warrants. Unrealism results from insufficient knowledge of people. (2) Using the wrong model stems from a planter, intoxicated with his ideas, trying to make the locals drink from his cup. They gag, he fails. (3) The church planter’s wife never buys in to the church plant. God’s voice starts sounding a lot like her mother’s, and first thing you know they move a couple hours from “home.” (4) Planters do not habitually tell lost people about Jesus, ask them to repent, and ask them to join the church. Two years go by, they have three cool friends, know a ton about theology, but can’t pay the bills.

More than anything else--even more than funding--we seem to need to apply pressure (by that I mean consistent accountability) and coaching to solve these four problems. If we cannot solve the big problems, why are we here?