best day in 30 years

This month marks my 30th year in ministry, a dozen church plants and four denominational jobs later, today, October 12, 2008 was the greatest ministry day of my life.

30 months ago as only God could design I was invited bythe 18 remaining members of Wornall Road Church in Kansas City to bring the church back from the brink of closing their doors – forever. The faithful band of mostly older adults who remained at Wornall were asked to think and act far beyond the boundaries of their comfort zone.

With a total commitment to the fidelity of Scripture and passion to become incarnational in the community they set out with me on the “ride of their lives”.

In the past 30 months we have stayed focus on the purpose that God gave us from the outset of this task, that focus is communicated in our mission statement – “Loving God and embracing His Word. Loving people and engaging our world.

We experimented with lots of ideas with a variety of results; it was very difficult in the early months. Our worship center can seat 600, and with less than 30 in attendance on Sunday morning, will as I often said –“you could shoot a canon off in here on Sunday morning and not hit anyone”. Still that little band was faithful…and God seeing their faith began to move among us.

We celebrate worship with more than 100 each Sunday morning, and more importantly lives are being transformed and our community is beginning to penetrate with the Gospel. Our church is representative of the diversity of our community. Hispanic, Asian, Black, Anglo, highly educated, uneducated, professional, non professional, at the highest end of the economic scale and at the lowest – and that is just our choir!

One unexpected victory has been the development of nothing less than an “organic” church planting (mini) movement. Our little church has directly assisted with the planting of eight new churches in the past 30 months with more on the way.Today, October 12, 2008 we had a joint worship service with five our daughter churches, each church brought music and message, we all took communion, it wasthe most amazing worship service I have ever led. We saw more than 250people, black, white, Hispanic, Korean, Lao, Middle eastern, East Indian, young, old, new believers and mature Christians all together – one church!

Not that we have planted this churches, God has called out and gifted passionate planters and teams, we simply provide every single resource (including $) to empower these new plants.

Together, Wornall and the daughter churchs are one church with a passion for this city and a burning passion for the Gospel and for sound doctrine. In recent months more than 50 new converts have been baptized by our church and our daughter churches.

How did it happen? How do you move from one dead church of 18 to 6 churches of250 in 30 months? And how do you do it with no financial resources (did I mention that when we began to replant this grand old church, she was broke…no money, after having more than $250,000 in funds just a few years earlier). The monthly cost in insurance and utilities alone was (and remain) more than $3,000.There is one key to this turn around.

The key was the understanding and embracing the supremacy of Christ. From the very beginning we have preached the supremacy of Christ and God has opened the eyes of the people to understand that Christ has power over all. We don’t fear the election, the economy, the dangerous city, we don’t fear the lack of funds or resources, we don’t fear the future, because of the supremacy of Christ we don’t fear giving up are demand for the details in return for the risky journey of faith...wedon’t even fear failure.

After 30 years, a dozen church plants I now realize the teaching and embracing of the supremacy of Christ is often the missing key to it our church planting efforts.

Jesus said, "I will build my church" the key to that statement is tofully understand who the "I" is. It is Jesus Christ who is supreme…to know that and act on that makes all the difference in the world.

Church planting and the supremacy of Christ

The Whirlpool Galaxy is located 37 million light years from the earth. It is more than 100 thousand light years across. It is estimated that there are more than 160 billion stars in this galaxy. These pictures were taken by the Hubble Space telescope.

The top image is the entire Whirlpool Galaxy, the image below is the core of the Whirlpool Galaxy, taken with the Wide Field Planetary camera on NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, shows a striking , dark "X" silhouetted across the galaxy's nucleus. The "X" is due to absorption by dust and marks the exact position of a black hole which may have a mass equivalent to one-million stars like the sun. The darkest bar may be an edge-on dust ring which is 100 light-years in diameter.

"The heavens announce that he'll set everything right, And everyone will see it happen - glorious!" Psalm 97:6 The Message

The above thoughts were from Louie Giglio.

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As we go about the task of planting or re planting Churches (like Wornall Road) we too often fail to realize the power and might of the one who is doing the planting. The same Jesus who promised to "build my church" is the same Jesus with total power over everything in the universe, including every star, plant and particle of dust in the incredibly distance Whirlpool Galaxy.

Recently John Piper preached on the subject of church planting and my pal Ed Stetzer was there to hear it. Stetzer posted this short outline of Piper's message, and it was one that I shared with our Wornall family this past Sunday. After spending 25 years of my life planting churches and leading church planters...this speaks to my heart....big time.

Matthew 16: 12-18 Jesus proclaims " I will build my church"

" I" A Risen Christ, worthy of eternal worship, is the one who plants the church.

"Will build" Christ builds His church through “ripping the gates of hell off of the human heart… so they can see.”

"My " The church belongs to Jesus Christ and Jesus is already at work in the city where you are planting. “For I have many people in this city” (Acts 18:10)

"Church" Only one institution in the entire universe is given the promise that Jesus will build it.

The most moving part of the text for me revolves around Christ, the "I" in the text. In 25 years of church planting I have often felt weak, tired, broke, small, unseen, blah...blah...blah... It is easy for church planters to feel sorry for themselves, but is is not the least bit productive.
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When we feel sorry for ourselves and when we complain in the work of church planting we reveal a major flaw in our Christology that impacts every area of our lives.

In another sermon Piper provides a real picture of the power of the one who is planting His church.
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When I fully embrace the supremacy of Christ it changes my passion and my plans for church planting, it changes my priorities in life...it changes my life.

As you read Piper's words on the supremacy of Christ and ask yourself these questions:

How would my passionate belief in the supremacy of Christ change my life?

How would that belief change the way I spend my time?

How would that belief change the way I spend my money?

Examine your commitment to the church, your passion for the church should reflect your passion for Christ.

Dwell on the truth that as a regenerate follower of Jesus you were rescued from hell.

Think about the power of the Church of Jesus to break down the gates of hell, grab you from certain death and eternal punishment and set you free now and forever!


John Piper's words on the supremacy of Christ -

"—the supremacy of his deity, equal with God the Father in all his attributes—the radiance of his glory and the exact imprint of his nature, infinite, boundless in all his excellencies;

—the supremacy of his eternality that makes the mind of man explode with the unsearchable thought that Christ never had a beginning, but simply always was; sheer, absolute reality while all the universe is fragile, contingent, like a shadow by comparison to his all-defining, ever-existing substance;

—the supremacy of his never-changing constancy in all his virtues and all his character and all his commitments—the same yesterday, today, and forever;

—the supremacy of his authority over heaven and earth and hell, without whose permission no man and no demon can move one inch, who changes times and seasons, removes kings and sets up kings; does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; so none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”

—the supremacy of his providence without which not a single bird falls to the ground in the furthest reaches of the Amazon forest, or a single hair of any head turns black or white;

—the supremacy of his word that moment by moment upholds the universe and holds in being all the molecules and atoms and subatomic world we have never yet dreamed of;

—the supremacy of his power to walk on water, cleanse lepers and heal the lame, open the eyes of the blind, cause the deaf to hear and storms to cease and the dead to rise, with a single word, or even a thought;

—the supremacy of his purity never to sin, or to have one millisecond of a bad attitude or an evil, lustful thought;

—the supremacy of his trustworthiness never to break his word or let one promise fall to the ground;

—the supremacy of his justice to render in due time all moral accounts in the universe settled either on the cross or in hell;
—the supremacy of his patience to endure our dullness for decade after decade; and to hold back his final judgment on this land and on the world, that many might repent;

—the supremacy of his sovereign, servant obedience to keep his Father’s commandments perfectly and then embrace the excruciating pain of the cross willingly;

—the supremacy of his meekness and lowliness and tenderness that will not break a bruised reed or quench a smoldering wick;

—the supremacy of his wrath that will one day explode against this world with such fierceness that people will call out for the rocks and the mountains to crush them rather than face the wrath of the Lamb;
—the supremacy of his grace that gives life to spiritually dead rebels and wakens faith in hell-bound haters of God, and justifies the ungodly with his own righteousness;

—the supremacy of his love that willingly dies for us even while we were sinners and frees us for the ever-increasing joy in making much of him forever;

—the supremacy of his own inexhaustible gladness in the fellowship of the Trinity, the infinite power and energy that gave rise to all the universe and will one day be the inheritance of every struggling saint;

And if he would grant us to know him like this, it would be but the outskirts of his supremacy. Time would fail to speak of the supremacy of his severity, and invincibility, and dignity, and simplicity, and complexity, and resoluteness, and calmness, and depth, and courage. If there is anything admirable, if there is anything worthy of praise anywhere in the universe, it is summed up supremely in Jesus Christ.

He is supreme in every admirable way over everything:
over galaxies and endless reaches of space;
over the earth from the top of Mount Everest 29,000 feet up, to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean 36,000 feet down into the Mariana Trench;

He is supreme over all plants and animals, from the peaceful Blue Whale to the microscopic killer viruses;
over all weather and movements of the earth: hurricanes, tornadoes, monsoons, earthquakes, avalanches, floods, snow, rain, sleet;
over all chemical processes that heal and destroy: cancer, AIDS, malaria, flu, and all the workings of antibiotics and a thousand healing medicines.

He is supreme over all countries and all governments and all armies;
over Al Qaeda and all terrorists and kidnappings and suicide bombings and beheadings;
over bin Ladin and al-Zarqawi;
over all nuclear threats from Iran or Russia or North Korea.
over all media and news and entertainment and sports and leisure;
and over all education and universities and scholarship and science and research;
and over all business and finance

He is supreme over all politics and elections;

As Abraham Kuyper used to say, “there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, ‘Mine!’” And rule with absolute supremacy.

And though it may not seem so now, it is only a matter of time until he is revealed from heaven in flaming fire to give relief to those who trust him and righteous vengeance on those who don’t."




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The power and glory of Christ emboldens us for the work of church planting. May we never cease to be amazed at our God...may we never fail to lift up Christ...may we bring to this work all of our energy, devotion and sacrifice...for the glory of Jesus Christ.

All Hail the power of Jesus Name!