First let me give you the official number for our two weeks of Baptisms: 346 life changing stories of people who with public with their faith through baptism! That's right! It was absolutely amazing. Next week we are going to post a resource that you can utilize for your own H20 series.
On to Coaching...I spend a lot of my time coaching leaders. It begins with our own team. We have young team of guys with lots of questions about their ministry area. They are learners so they are constantly reading, networking, and asking key questions. I love it. I also spend a lot of time coaching church planters. I will meet with one tomorrow. I can't wait.
Earlier this week I had the opportunity to met another new church planter; Steve Furtick. Steve is pastor of Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC. Elevation Church is one year old and they have 1600 people attending their weekend worship services. You heard me right! 1600!
Steve and his team had come to Atlanta to meet with North Point and stopped by to meet with our team at Mountain Lake Church. As I sat there and mostly listened to the conversations that were happening in the room it hit me. Both Steve Furtick and Shawn Lovejoy the founding and lead pastor of MLC are learners. It was obvious that both of these guys are fact finders and did their homework prior to planting their churches. It was also obvious that they continue to learn their way forward. They are just as eager to learn today as they were prior to launching their churches.
This is a value they share with the most effective church planters and leaders in the nation. One of the best practices that we talk about in our Best Practices of Effective Church Planters is their commitment to self leadership. The best of the best understand that before they lead others they have to lead themselves. Leadership happens from the inside out, not the outside in.
This was a great reminder of why we do what we do at ChurchPlanters. In late April we will launch a new coaching network in the Atlanta area. I can't wait to see the guys that will make up this network. More importantly I can't wait to see what happens in their ministries throughout the rest of 2007 as iron sharpens iron.
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