Chris Elrod

Ernie The Dud

Well, it's about 1:00 PM here in Central Florida and the most Ernesto has done is drop some rain.  In all honesty, the few real rain bands are still about an hour out.  The winds have really been downgraded so life here has gone back to normal.  All in all, Ernie has proven to be a big dud.  Thank the Lord!!!

We Stopped Looking At Totals

Unlike many church planters, I didn’t spend college taking Bible courses or attending seminary (I’ll share more about this in a later post). I was a business major. I fell in love with economics, accounting and statistics.  However, it was macro-management that really got me emotionally charged . . . the ability to see the big picture of a company then determine success, failure or needed change. In those classes I learned that totals don’t really prove anything in business – it’s percentages that show success or failure.

Several years ago I arrived at the idea that totals prove very little in church work when I was doing some administrative consulting at a Central Florida church. They were having some financial problems and I was brought in to make suggestions on where they could cut. After looking things over I felt – among many things – that the $60,000 salary package they were paying the youth pastor was way too much.  They were not getting their bang for their buck.

A healthy youth ministry in any church should count for no less than 10% of the total attendance in the church. The youth pastor had been there for almost eight years. He took the youth group from 55 teens to a little over 100 in that time. For many churches this youth group total would be cause for celebration! The problem . . . the church ran over 2,500 in weekly attendance. In over seven years the youth pastor and youth ministry was bringing in less than 5% of the people. To make matters worse, they had never had one youth baptism. Almost all the kids had church homes before coming to this church. The totals looked good, yet the percentages showed the church was getting the bum deal.  They kept the pastor on staff, but set some new goals for him.

In my life as a pastor – first on staff at other churches – and now as Lead Shepherd of Compass Point, I am amazed at how many pastors don’t understand that totals don’t really mean much. When I have a guy at a pastor’s conference tell me they are running 500 in worship I wonder, “500 what?” Does he mean 500 people that didn’t have a church home or 500 people that hopped over from other local churches? Does he mean 500 folks that are getting a meaningful weekly dose of community and Bible study in small groups or 500 people that just show up for the Sunday morning “show” to enjoy the cool videos, kicking lights and rocking band?

I’m honestly not trying to sound holier-than-thou, I just think it’s time we started asking some tough questions about what total attendance numbers really show. It’s easy to spout off a cool “pastoral” number at a planter’s conference to pump up our fragile preacher egos or “one-up” someone else – which I have been known to do. The question though, comes down to . . . are we really affecting people for change with our church plants? To answer that question, Compass Point stopped looking at totals and started looking at what we feel are the important numbers . . . percentages.

When we planted we took the time to really look at what our goals were as a church plant and to design a ruler for measuring whether we were actually meeting the vision. We felt a calling to reach unchurched people. For us unchurched is defined as anyone not actively involved in a church for over sixteen months. To break it down into modern church-planting concepts our initial target market was not based on age, race, social-economic status, music style, location, etc. It was simply the unchurched of Lakeland, Florida.

We also wanted to make sure that folks were not getting saved, baptized and then out the back door. We knew that small groups were of paramount importance to Compass Point - much more so than even Sunday mornings. For us success was not how many unchurched people came through the front door, but how many never exited out the back door.

The measuring stick we set for determining success, failure or the need to make changes was based on percentages. Since the spiritual goal for our flock is life change and ongoing spiritual growth we only count Sunday attendance in order to compute the percentages. Please also note, we have never had a numeric goal for Compass Point - only spiritual ones.

We concluded that success in meeting the purpose and calling of Compass Point meant that we needed to see 70% of our attenders be unchurched – having had no church home in at least sixteen months. As I stated in yesterday’s post over 80% of our folks meet this goal. Within that percentage almost half have had no church home in their entire life before coming to Compass Point.

We also determined that Compass Point would not be considered a healthy church until over 65% of our attenders were actively involved in a weekly small group. At present our percentage is around 58% so we have more work to do there. I really won't be happy until we reach 100%. Lofty goals I know, but necessary!

Compass Point was planted to reach people that other churches were not. In essence, we would be horrified to know that we pulled one person from another church. We were never called to illicit “Kingdom trading”, we were planted to see “Kingdom growth”.  Tracking percentages and not totals is the only way to make sure we are not engaging in pulling people from other churches!

As a church plant seeking to reach unchurched people with the Good News of Jesus Christ, we have dismissed totals as way of determining success. Totals – for us – are like a Polaroid. Pretty to look at and able to be quickly produced, but strictly show a shot of the surface. To measure our ability to meet our calling we need an MRI or X-ray to see what the make-up is like on the inside. For us, using percentages meets that need.

We Planted Differently

For several months I have been wrestling with what I should . . . and should not post . . . on my blog.  Not that I plan to write anything overly offensive or vulgar.  I's just that many of my ideas about church planting in the 21st Century fly in the face of what many others write about in church leadership/strategy books and post on their blogs.  In essence, it's a total opposite to the modern-church, mega-church, multi-church mentality.  Not that those are wrong, I just think they are a bit dated.  They are reaching folks now . . . and doing a tremendous job with the late twenty-somethings and up . . . I just think they may not be able to reach the upcoming younger generation with their current models.

Compass Point began a little over two years ago as a home Bible study.  In that time we have seen steady growth in unchurched, young 20-somethings.  More than 75% of those attending our church are under the age of 25 (not necessarily in the summer, but when college is back in session).  Also, we have 82% that attend regularly that had no church home before they darkened the doors of Compass Point.  I guess the greatest number . . . to us . . . is that 89% of the people that visit Compass Point stay.  We have found those that left after trying us were area church folks that were semi-church hoppers (we do exit interviews).  Finally, our Sunday attendance has quadrupled in the two years since we began.

The problem is this . . . we hardly do any of the things we hear about in books, blogs or at church leadership/planting conferences.  Many times we do the opposite!  We do not advertise, we do not concentrate all efforts on Sunday, we do not use a rocking band, we do not conduct seeker-sensitive ministries, we do not rely on programming, we do not emphasize technology, we do not do mass events and we do not usually emphasize series preaching.  Yet, we are still reaching predominately unchurched, young people and families.

So why am I sharing this now?

For the last year I have been used by the Florida Baptist Convention to speak to church planter's at their "Basic Training" conferences.  Not all of the conferences, but some.  My presentation at the conferences - while based on assigned topics - flies in the face of a "shock and awe" planting strategy that some other state church planters have been pushing (I'll explain "shock and awe" in a later post).  Over the last several months I have been encouraged by folks attending those conferences to start posting my ideas about church planting on this blog.

I have resisted because . . .

a)  Compass Point is not running 1,000 people so who would take me seriously.

b)  Assuming that one's opinions actually count is kind of egotistical.

c)  There are already a butt-load of people blogging about planting churches.

d)  People are pretty opposed to ideas about church planting that aren't the typical modern-day model.

e)  The experts are pushing the mega-church, multi-site, modern-technology-model and I might come off as petty when I suggest the opposite.

Yet, two recent emails and a posting by Tadd Grandstaff finally pushed me over the edge.  They were asking the right questions for planting churches for a younger audience.  However, they (especially the folks that sent the emails) were getting quite a bit a flack for questioning the current, accepted model for church planting.  I think it's about time to shake up that model a bit.

Over the next month or so I will post things that we . . . the church plant team, staff and elders of Compass Point . . . have discovered the hard way about reaching the unchurched-25-and-below crowd.  The opinions are in no way meant to be taken as shots at any particular church, pastor, blogger or leader.  They are just things that we have discovered in our journey . . . things that other people reaching younger, unchurched folks are also discovering.  I am . . . by no means . . . an expect . . . and the strategies, thoughts and ideas that I post may not work in every situation.  They will be things that have worked for Compass Point and the folks we are reaching.

Feel free to comment, email, rant, rave, disagree or ignore.

You're On Notice

The Big Mo

Momentum can literally spell life or death for a church.  While I believe the first question church planters must continually be asking themselves is, "How do we reach the unchurched with the Good News of Jesus Christ?" . . . the second question we should constantly ask is, "How do we create the Big Mo (a.k.a., momentum)?"

Scott Whitaker has posted on his blog, what I feel to be one of the best explanations about the Big Mo that I've ever seen.  I would recommend every church planter, pastor or leader to read this.

We Don't Podcast Everyting

At a conference recently I was asked about our podcast, particularly about why we do not always have a new message podcasted every week.  The answer is pretty simple, we don't feel like some message are for the whole world . . . just for Compass Point folks.

I realize that we have kind of an extended "family" through our podcasts.  We have some guys on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico that listen to it.  We have a rancher in North Dakota that listens to it.  We even have a few folks in Australia that listen each week to the podcast of our services.  The only problem is that some messages - like the ones from the past two Sundays - are only for the Compass Point family that is physically here in Lakeland, Florida.

We were doing a short two-week message series called "Outside The Box" in preparation for some new servant evangelism projects to be conducted locally this Fall.  Therefore, the staff and I felt like they were messages only intended for those attending Compass Point.  Other people - not physically here - probably would have been lost in the series because we mentioned specific area locations and places.  We did, however put up an "invitation-only" streaming audio for our college students that will be returning in a few weeks.

Left me also say that, while I appreciate the folks around the world that tune into our podcast, I was called to shepherd a local fellowship in a small Central Florida town.  They are my first love in ministry and some messages I preach are only for them.

With that in mind, we podcast about 85% of our messages each year.  If folks would like to hear the other 15% . . . let me just say . . . Lakeland, Florida is a great place to live!  :-)

Gary's Right

I make it a point to never disagree with Gary Lamb . . . particularly when he's right!  Dilana is the only choice as lead singer for Supernova!  She totally nailed "Every Breath You Take" tonight!  I really dig her voice . . . kind of Tina Turner . . . kind of Pat Benatar . . . kind of Kim Carnes . . . kind of Anne Wilson.  She's already a star and would be a great front-woman for Gilby, Jason and Tommy.

I also have to give props to Ryan.  While I don't think he'll make the band . . . or should make Supernova . . . he's making the most of the opportunity by performing his own, original songs.  Talk about a killer record company showcase backed by a killer band!  He'll get signed to his own deal because of the show.

Greatest Job & Tonight's Music

First of all, church planting is the greatest job in the world.  I can't figure out which baffles me more . . . that I'm blessed enough to get to do this for a living or that people keep showing up at Compass Point week after week.  Yeah, there are ups and downs . . . but, it is an incredible ride.  Today was just one of those days where I really thanked God for the calling he placed in my life.  Nothing out of the ordinary or particularly special . . . just a wonderful feeling of adventure!!!

With all that said, I'm listening to David Bowie's "The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust" tonight.  It's not necessarily my favorite Bowie album, but I heard "Starman" on Rock Star: Supernova this week and just had to hear Bowie do it.  There are many other great songs on the album and the intro licks to "Ziggy Stardust" is a guitar classic!

A Really Weird Day

It's about 10:00 PM (EST) and I still haven't completely mentally processed the day.  The service itself was good . . . not great . . . but good.  Quite a few of our normal volunteer leaders were getting in those last minute vacation trips this weekend.  Also, attendance was slightly down, but still good.  The band was sounding good, I was pretty pumped about the message and our folks responded well to it.  Yet, there were all of these bizarre technical problems.

First the air conditioner in the gymnasium we use at the YMCA went on the fritz.  It kept working - cooling the building down - however it was making a horrible noise.  We have stacks of sound equipment and we were almost drowned out by the sound of the air conditioner.

Secondly, our always-reliable Easy Worship software wasn't reliable today.  It kept kicking out our saved worship program and reverting back to an old save.  None of the graphics, movie files or Scriputre references worked properly.  We kept having to reboot and limped through it.

Finally, the sound board was completely unreal.  There have been no problems with it over the last several months and then today it really went off the hook!  None of the built-in power amps (four 300-watt amps) were functionally properly and then the mids went out completely.  After tweaking it for a while we finally got everything back up and then the whole thing shut down.  No sound!  Out of sure divine inspiration our drummer plugged in a "dummy load" speaker and everything came back up . . . as long as the "dummy load" stayed plugged in.  In all of my years around sound systems (over 25 years to be exact), I have never seen anything like it!!!

Now comes the crazy part!  As soon as the service ended today everything but the loud air conditioner went back to working normally!!!  The spiritual attacks just keep stranger and stranger!

R.I.P. Airline Industry

Today's revelation of the U.K. bomb plot was the beginning of the end for the airline industry - as we know it.  If folks can't bring water, laptops, ipods, isolation earphones, contact lens solution, base coat makeup, PDAs, cellphones, etc. on the plane - business travelers (the bread-and-butter of the airline industry) just won't fly.  Well, at least not this one!

Finally Answered My Tag

In all honesty, my new ESV Journal Bible would be the answer to quite a few of these questions. However, in an effort to avoid giving “Sunday School” answers and in keeping with the spirit of this tag I have listed other books than the Bible.

1.  One book that changed your life: Getting Things Done by David Allen

2.  One book that you’ve read more than once: Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller

3.  One book you’d want on a desert island: U.S. Marine Corps Survival Manual

4.  One book that made you laugh: Confessions Of A Reformissional Reverend by Mark Driscoll

5.  One book that made you cry: Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck

6.  One book you wish you had written: The Purpose Driven Life (for the royalties)

7.  One book you wish had never been written: A Generous Orthodoxy by Brian McLaren

8.  One book you are currently reading: Truth Matters by John MacArthur

9.  One book you’ve been meaning to read:  Desiring God by John Piper

10. Tag 5 others: I don't think so . . .

Greatness . . .

Greatness can only be achieved through teamwork.  It's the difference between success and failure . . . between what is and what could have been.  I was reminded of that in a mighty way yesterday morning!

Motorcycles CAN Fly!!!

In case you missed it, motorcycles can fly!  Forget the NFL "Hall Of Fame" game.  Forget the Yankees being in first place (boo!).  Forget the women's British Open.  Forget the NASCAR Alltel 400.  The sports event of the weekend was the 12th X-Games where Travis Pastrana nailed the double backflip in the Motorcycle Freestyle Jumping.  That's two . . . count them . . . two . . . backflips on a motorcycle.  Unreal and historical!!!  I remember when we thought Evel Knievel jumping 13 buses was a big deal.  Check out the video at You Tube, you won't believe your eyes!

Tonight's Musical Selection

Nothing like the live version of "Great White Buffalo" to chase away a virus.  I figure if the U.S. Marines blast "Terrible Ted" to run out Al Queda in the Middle East, he's worth a shot with my illness.  :-)

I've got to get Nugent listening in quick, though.  The Brickyard 400 just ended and the NFL "Hall Of Fame" game is on tonight.  Yeah baby, football is back . . . I made it through another off-season!!!

Funny Things About U.S. Air Force Pilot Reports

I was floating around the 'Net while waiting for the Brickyard 400 (I refuse to call it that Alltel 400 crap) to start and stumbled on a blog by Brian Spears.  He has a hilarious posting about real U.S. Air Force maintainence reports for their aircraft.  I was falling out about the midget with the hammer!!!

I Love Our Volunteers!

If you read my post last night, then you know I've been pretty sick the last two days.  Well, I was still sick this morning and missed setting up at Compass Point for only the second time in two years.

What a great experience!  Our volunteer staff and tech team are INCREDIBLE!!!  I am so blessed to be surrounded by such talented and humble servants of God.  Not only did they work themselves to death this morning (as they do each Sunday), they took time out to lay hands on me and pray when I got there.

I gotta tell you, it's those unexpected moments when God uses leadership so mightily that makes church planting the greatest job in the world!!!

Blowing Oats, Preaching Enoch

I've been blowing chunks since yesterday, so tomorrow at Compaass Point should be interesting.  It won't be the first time I've preached with a bucket behind the monitors.  Actually, I'm preaching about Enoch, so we will keep a Sermon Spice video clip about walking with God cued up in case I need to make a "pit stop".  There's no way I'm going to sit the bench over a virus!!!  Winners . . . and church planters . . . always want the ball.  :-)

Incredible Words From Gary Lamb

Those that keep up with this site know that I read Gary Lamb's blog everyday (eventhough I'm a Gator man and he's a fan of the Georgia "Poodles").  Gary was recently reflecting back on what he's learned over the last two years as lead pastor of Ridge Stone Church in Canton, Georgia.  I believe that his list of 21 things he's learned about pastoring a church plant should be required reading for everyone that is - or is thinking about - starting a church.  It is . . . literally . . . the best stuff I've ever read on church planting!!!

Stealing Sermons

The Leadership Journal blog recently featured a posting about plagiarism in the pulpit. To be honest, I have thought about addressing this issue on my own blog for quite some time. It seems like every church planter’s conference, retreat or seminar I speak at, I get asked about using someone else’s sermons. My answer is always “don’t!”

Okay, I’ll admit, when church planters are just starting out there are a ton of things to take up your time. Things like meetings, planning sessions, meetings, visits, meetings, outreach events, meetings, staff interviews and . . . meetings. The last thing you have time for is to come up with a complete sermon series.

It is in those times when Sermon Central, Wired Churches and Creative Pastors is great for helping to obtain illustrations, find outlines and discover multiple Scripture passages on a subject. Those sites are NOT there to rehash word for word some other pastor’s sermon. That is called . . . well . . . stealing. It is actually against federal law if a pastor is rehashing someone else’s sermon word for word and then podcasting it or selling compact discs of it. Not to mention, there is also an issue of integrity when using someone else’s God-given message as if it were your own. I don’t care if you paid $8.98 for the transcript.

I am a firm believer that God has called every pastor to preach for - and to - their own flock. While I certainly appreciate the inspiration of messages by Erwin McManus, John Piper and Mark Driscoll, they are not the shepherd of the Compass Point flock. It is my sole responsibility – and my staff’s responsibility – to seek out God’s message for this flock. It is not my job to seek out a cool message that Ed Young preached at Fellowship Church in Texas and plagiarize it. Ed’s notes might spark a different idea for an illustration for me. His mind-map may cause me to realign my outline. His choice of Scripture might lead me into adding another part to the series. The last thing Ed’s message should do is to cause me to ignore God’s message for this flock and preach what God desired for Fellowship Church to hear.

I think part of my frustration with this subject is the amount of established pastors that are guilty of doing this. A new pastor or church planter with very little pulpit experience might be excused, but a pastor . . . with a staff . . . should be bleeding over what God is telling them to say to their flock. A church planter a year or more past their launch date should be spending several hours – or more - of every week in sermon preparation. That doesn’t mean brainstorming cool video clips with the staff. It means actually spending personal time in the Word of God!

I realize that the demands of pastoring a church have become great. However, I have found nowhere in the Bible where we are called to be CEOs, motivational gurus or
the “pied piper” of people. We have been called to share the Word of God! I find that far too many of us . . . myself included . . . spend too much time each week coming up with “wow-factor” lighting cues and cool rock songs for Sunday morning’s worship “production”. Thus, sermon preparation falls needlessly to the background and copping someone else’s message becomes a necessity, then a habit and then . . . a way of life!

As someone that suffers from ADD, I find it difficult to sit and study the Bible for several hours each week. Yet, I know that God always speaks to me there and provides a constant flow of fresh sermon ideas. Yes, I’m inspired by other sermons I hear though podcasts. Yes, I care about the professionalism of our Sunday morning services. Yes, I believe it is important to give your best and all for Christ. However, I find it hard to justify my all and best for Christ in other areas of pastoring if I cannot do it in the sermons I preach at Compass Point.

I guess the biggest problem I have with ripping off another pastor’s sermon is . . . fear. Fear that Compass Point won’t hear what God wanted them to discover about His Word, because I was preaching from McManus or Bell.

So to once again, answer that question I get at church plant conferences . . . don’t preach someone else’s sermon word for word. Be inspired by it. Gather information from it. Don’t plagiarize it!!!

Compass Point's New Website

We recently made the decision at Compass Point to drop our website from E-Zekiel and go with Advanced Ministry.  We also chose to change our domain name due to the fact that it was so close to several network server companies.  Finally after about four weeks, it went live today.

Go to www.compasspointlakeland.com to check it out.  We still have a little minor tweaking, but we are pretty happy with it!!!

ChrisElrod.com Has Gone Live

Thanks to the folks at Network Solutions and Typepad, you can now reach my blog by using the URL www.chriselrod.com.  It took a while, but was well worth the wait.  :-)