I would like to employ the readers of this board in helping me “perfect” and “flesh-out” this proposal. Again, you can read the whole thing here.

Please respond to the following concerns (and any others you can think of):

1. Since we are only at the beginning of the TOT reduction, is this proposal premature?
2. Is the matching funds proponent (local and state) a positive idea?
3. Should the funds be designated for a church plant/satellite and then sent to the state office for distribution or should it simply be reduced out of the monthly TOT check?
4. Should there be a cap (financial or time) on how much (or how long) you can give to a particular church plant/satellite? The only reason I ask this is so that local churches do not end up diverting tithes to a church that is not in the “planting” phase.
5. Finally, should I wait to see if the Executive Council will put this proposal on the 2012 Agenda, or should I submit it to the floor of the General Assembly through the motions committee?

My only hope is to help re-engage the COG as a church planting organization. Please help me think through both what the best plan is for church planting and what plan has the best chance of being adopted by the General Assembly.

Jerry Lawson

BACKSTORY

Like so many others, I have long been concerned with the lack of commitment from the Church of God to effective church planting.  Even in times when designated church planting funds have been used for church planting, it appears that we do not have an effective model, so our efforts often fail.  There may be several reasons for this propensity to be unsuccessful:

1. Lack of proper training in church planting.
2. Lack of ongoing support: mentoring, resourcing, encouragement.
3. Lack of connection with a local Mother-Church.

Most people recognize that the most effective model for church planting is when a local church “has a baby” or plants a church out of itself.  It has been well observed: “Churches beget churches.  Denominations do not beget churches.”

I offer a recent Daystar Church plant testimony as an example.  About two years ago, our Student Life Pastor, Greg Davis expressed his desire to pastor a church.  So, we set out to birth a daughter congregation and send Greg out as the church planter.  We wanted to make sure that we didn’t just send out a preacher with some money.  We wanted to send out the Daystar DNA.  So, we provided the new pastor with the following:

1. A complete structure to run the ministries of the church.  About 50 volunteers with the new pastor.  Each of these had been trained and served in the various ministries of Daystar.  Literally, the day they started, they were a junior version of Daystar.  Ushers, greeters, children’s ministry, follow-up ministry, prayer teams, media, youth, etc…were all trained and ready to go.
2. Demographic research: the new pastor and I spent much time discussing where, how, and when this launch would take place.  Now, not only is he on board, but so am I.  If it is in both of our hearts, we are more likely to team together to make it all happen.
3. Support of $50,000 from the mother church as well as much more from other resources.
4. Resources: Every spare piece of equipment, furniture, signage, etc… that we could round up was given to him.

What is the result?  Eighteen months into the new church plant, Chelsea Community Church is averaging around 350 in attendance.  The pastor is full-time and the community is turning on its head in revival.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

It is my belief that an effective approach to re-affirming our pioneering DNA is critical to our future.  We must do this now.  We cannot afford, as an Acts 1 and Acts 2 Church to compromise our commitment to our Mission in favor of other good but, lesser priority activities or line items.

So, why don’t we allow local churches to take a portion of their tithe-of-tithe, in the range (20%) of our historical financial commitment to church planting,* and use it to birth new churches?  If we could forge a church planting partnership with the Church of God, we could exponentially increase our church planting efforts both locally and internationally.

Further, such an arrangement could undermine the structural flaw which has caused, over the course of decades, mandated church planting monies to be appropriated by the state offices to fund other activities.  Instead of this money going through the state office, 100% of the church planting monies would go directly into starting new churches.

Therefore, I am proposing the following motion to be considered for strong approval by this Executive Council for inclusion on the 2010 General Assembly Agenda:

PROPOSAL

That local churches be permitted to invest up to 20% of their monthly Tithe of Tithe of the State/Regional Office portion of funding in establishing a new church or a new campus of an existing church.  The church and/or church planter would be required to raise matching funds to be eligible to receive this percentage of Tithe of Tithe church planting funds.

STRUCTURAL NOTE

Please attach this proposal to the appropriate place in the new financial structure of the Tithe of Tithe or it’s most appropriate place.

Authored by Jerry Lawson

*It was in 1929, the year of the Great Depression when the Church of God rallied together to declare a mandated commitment level of denominational giving to North American church planting.

Today, I shared out of Ephesians 3:1-13 where Paul shares what the main business of the Church is.  Unfortunately, the Church gets caught up in a number of side agendas and forgets or marginalizes the life and mission Christ instructs us to live.

Rather than the Church being radically committed to the Great Commission and the Great Commandment, we often pick-up sidebar agendas and ram them to the front at the expense of our calling.  Below are some of the concerns I have for the church:

• Obsession with Social Action.
• Obsession with Comfort.
• Obsession with Prosperity.
• Obsession with the Supernatural.
• Fear of the Supernatural.
• Biblical Illiteracy.
• A prayer life that stops at asking for stuff.
• A personal financial life that ignores God’s plan for your life.
• Unwillingness to be conformed to the Image of Christ.

The antidote is simply shelving personal agendas…dying to ourselves…living to Christ…and continuously allowing the Holy Spirit to convict us of our insistence on ignoring the purpose of the Church in favor of advancing our own desires.

Crowds throng to the flash, the pomp, the explosive, the sensational. We want to see the explosive (dunamis) power of the Holy Spirit. We equate the Holy Spirit with explosive and immediate power. Well, we should. Holy Spirit power is explosive power!

But, it is not only the power to see the extraordinary or Acts 2 revival where thousands are ushered into the Kingdom of God.  Holy Spirit power is also the power that compels Philip the Evangelist to leave an explosive Holy Ghost outpouringwhere 3,000 were saved to a desert road between Jerusalem and Gaza where he stumbled upon an Ethiopian eunuch and led him to Christ.

Philip probably never realized the impact of that moment…perhaps even questioning why God would move him from a fertile Gospel explosion to the desert. But, history shows us that this Ethiopian eunuch likely is the seed that germinated the Gospel in Africa with the Coptic Church tracing it’s origin back to this eunuch.

The continent of Africa can thank God that the Holy Spirit isn’t confined to acts of ecstasy but is free to express Himself on desertous trailways and through men and women that are digging out works in Gospel-hostile lands.

All of us want and crave great spiritual results. But, we ought to desire more greatly to be vehicles that communicate the Gospel where the Gospel most needs communicating.  If the tools of that trade more greatly resemble trail boots and a travel sack than a great stage with plenty of “atta-boys”, by all means, let’s embrace a pioneer’s life.

It’s funny how the goal posts have moved. We judge our faith quality by how God blesses us…as if God is the great cosmic pinata and our prayers are the stick that manipulates the candy out of the sky. Seemingly, gone are the days of conquest, spiritual adventure, raw Spirit-empowered engagement, pioneering, and the raising of Gospel outposts in spiritually barren frontiers.  Perhaps, we traded it away for a little more luxury, a little less trouble, and an absence of pain or resistance all for a predictable, non-circuitous journey.

I can’t imagine that God’s purpose is to save us to polish us up to make us his sanitized trophies to settle us as dust collectors on His heavenly mantle.We read the adventurous story of the Holy Spirit in Acts 1 & 2 and think of the Holy Spirit as our warm, comfy lap blanket to cuddle with on the couch…a Holy Spirit that gives us the “cozies” after punching the clock…some type of spiritual, pick-me-up.  No way!  That’s not how I read it.

The Holy Spirit is our radical empowerment that broke into our reality with an uncontainable fuel meant to cause us to come alive in Him, dead to ourselves, and propelled into a black-and-white world with massive and expressive splashes of vivid color swaths.

The Holy Spirit calls us and enables us to live radically and energized among the world, imparting God’s grace generously to others.  And, in our soft, entitled way of thinking we’re happy to instead settle for a life of fluffed pillows, softish hands, and microwaveable spirituality…but, it doesn’t have to be.

Join in the conversation as Jerry Lawson, lead pastor of Daystar Church in Cullman, AL leads us through a brainstorming session on developing/conceptualizing a new church planting mandate for our denomination.

• What was the purpose of the Listening Tour?
• In light of these findings, what should the Executive Committee do?
• In light of these findings, how should the respective state offices and state ministers respond?

*It’s also worth noting that almost an exact equal amount of Latinos and Caucasians were at the Tampa Listening Tour with an equivalent number of Blacks (African-Americans, Jamaicans, Haitians, West Indian, etc…) at the Cocoa Listening Tour (see results).

Florida COG – Cocoa

• Listening Tour Transcript – Cocoa
• Florida Cocoa Listening Tour Summary
• Listening Tour Results – Cocoa

Florida COG – Tampa

• Listening Tour Transcript – Tampa
• FL Tampa Listening Tour Summary
• Listening Tour Results – Tampa

DISTILLED BULLET POINTS

FLORIDA COG – COCOA

Ernesto Armstrong:  I here on behalf of my pastor, Bishop Quanelle Miller.

Bro. Pratt:  Question with regards to your mention with the Listening Tours is this Listening Tour here the Tampa Office and the Tampa mention for March, is that the one we are suppose to attend?   This is just a state function here for us.

Unidentified Speaker:  This Listening Tour in Cocoa is an afterthought and that is a little bit disconcerting that we came up after the fact.  May I suggest that if it is in order that the next go around if this would get back to the GO, that Cocoa Office or Cocoa Area could be the primary or principal area for the next Listening Tour?

Bro. Porter:  The divide in FL

Kathy Franks:  Why is it being ignored?  Do you see no need?  I’m just wondering because I know people don’t want to say black and white, we got a black president now because, anything’s possible.  But you guys are not, it’s not right that we’re not together.  And even for you to say that it isn’t being considered, that’s not right either.  That’s what I wanted to know.  Why is it not being considered?  Is it being ignored or you just don’t see a need for it?

Bro. Pough:  I wonder, I wonder, I wonder, are we in a church that is sensitive to this in the time in which we live.  Are we in the right church or shall we look for another?

John Diamond:  What I would like to know is why has that been allowed, and not just why it has been allowed, but what will be done to correct that issue?  I believe and it may be my personal opinion, but I would like to see if Tampa is going to take our strong churches that they should be willing to pay their bills, bring them current and then bring them under their wings?  That would be my opinion.  Thank you.

Theodore Ballard:  Division of the state of FL.

Unidentified Speaker:  I spoke once before so just miniature, not going long.  If we should go back to the subject of the Tampa Office and the Cocoa Office, the problem is we have two standards for the same Minutes.  Two standards for the same Minutes that should govern all of us.  The problem is M – O – N – E – Y.   Because our black churches get to the place where they make a couple of dollars of tithe, the Tampa Office don’t want us to send the tithe into the Cocoa Office.  Gentlemen that is the problem.  If you fix that from up top everything will be alright.

FLORIDA COG – TAMPA

This week, Bill Isaacs, State Administrative Bishop for Northern Ohio announced a series of developments in the trajectory of the State Offices (Northern & Southern) in Ohio from his Facebook page.  There he said…

• Today could mark a big step in the COG for Ohio. Joint State Council meeting to decide if they will recommend to the ministers the option to merge into one state again. 40 years ago, the state was divided along I-70 and perhaps it may be that merger will bring them back together in 2010. it’s an exciting opportunity…but most important we want to be positioned in God’s will and purpose as a community of faith. 2/18/10 6:51 am
• Today was a pivot point for the Church of God in Ohio (both North and South). Very proud of the leaders in both regions and the leadership they are giving to the future of the COG in this state. 2/18/10 7:46 pm
• UNANIMOUS vote by joint state councils of NOCOG/SOCOG to recommend merger of OnePhio at 2010 Assembly.  8 Listening Tours begin March 1-25. 2/20/10 9:04 am
• OneOhio STate Ministers meeting will be March 27 in the Columbus area for all credentialed ministers in both regions. 2/20/10 9:05 am
• OneOhio will have 240 churches/54,000 members, although recent Executive Council decision will lower numbers some. 2/20/10 9:20 am
• Contracting two offices to one will save huge and will allow or new leadership paradigms and function, we believe. 2/20/10 9:21 am

Also, more discussion is available on Actscelerate from Rodney Mullins, pastor of Life Church in Easton, Ohio.

So, the state offices in Ohio have initiated the “contraction” or unification of their offices from the State Council to the State Ministers.  The State Ministers will vote whether or not to contract, which based on the unanimity of the State Council and the ensuing comments, it certainly looks like this will happen.  But, even if it was to somehow fail, there is much to be learned with substantial ramifcations for the separate offices in Florida. Consider the following solutions to the segregated leadership paradigm in Florida.  The number of next steps that could solve this institutionally divisive arrangement in Florida seem to have been broadened by the State initiated response in Ohio.  Their action and the precedent it sets certainly has implications for other state offices.  And, if Florida was to respond similarly by contracting or unifying, it would have precedent for states and regions nationally as well.  Here are some observations of the possibilities going forward:

PATHS FORWARD:

• The Executive Committee could on their own resolve the segregated offices in Florida by combining the states and appointing an African America State Administrative Bishop like Jimmy Campbell, Wallace Sibley or another prominent leader who has a proven track record of proficiency in the COG and begin appointing racially diverse leaders over any our states/regions, as opposed to a handful of states like Florida (Cocoa).
• The Florida State Council (Tampa) could follow the same path as Ohio by recommending unification with the caveat that an African American Ordained Bishop be appointed  over the newly formed Florida office.
• The Executive Committee could split Florida into two regions, a north and south making Cocoa offices a S. Florida and Tampa, a N. Florida Office.  In my opinion, this would be the most politically safe approach.  It would not be in keeping with our desire for less overhead, and we would have unnecessary redundancy with two Administrative Offices in Florida where with good leadership and local church empowerment, we could easily manage a large state and the management needed for such a state.

SOME BENEFITS & OBSERVATIONS:

• Florida (Tampa) AB, Martin Taylor is term limited.  He’ll be leaving the Florida (Tampa) State Office at this General Assembly.  So, there is a vacancy in Florida (Tampa). In that respect, timing is good for unifying offices.
• From what I understand, Florida (Cocoa) is experiencing significant financial challenges due to a number of issues, including some churches in Cocoa being courted to move over to the Tampa offices, according to comments made in the Cocoa Listening Tour. *Download and Read the Florida_Cocoa_Listening_Tour_Transcript
• The tour also showed that a majority of comments (15 of 26 or 57.7% of total comments) made requested more information about the possibility of a unified office in Tampa, challenges between the two offices, question about why there was a separate Listening Tour for Tampa and Cocoa, and/or a desire to see expanded denominational leadership opportunities for African Americans.

• The implications from Ohio yield that Florida or any states/regions are permitted to initiate talks to combine offices.  This also seems to be established as a possibility in the listening tour by members of the Executive Committee.
• Assuming Florida follows suit with Ohio and an African American serves as an AB of a unified Florida, what’s stopping any good, trusted leader from serving in any state or region without bias or prejudice against one’s skin color?

CONCLUSION:

Now that Ohio has jumped out ahead of the cuts and launched into the process of re-unifying their state in anticipation of the cuts and in order to be more efficient and united, other states should follow suit and also use the opportunity to correct the sinful/pragmatic approach to racial separation by opening opportunities to a great pool of leaders.  Some of our greatest leaders in the COG are black, latino, asian, etc…  I love my brothers in Florida and in the Church of God and am more than happy to receive leadership based on their ability to lead with strength and humility no matter what town or to what parents they come from.  I am thankful that Jesus loved me and became flesh and moved into my neighborhood without bias to my melanin.  I’m glad he didn’t disqualify me from serving others in the Kingdom because of my race or nationality.  We should be like Christ in this.

It’s time we begin following Jesus in this matter of race and leadership and correct our institutional biases and injustices.  What say you?  Are there other paths to achieve this unity in our body?