For my interview, I had
the honor and privilege to speak with one of the fastest growing new faith
communities in the Missouri Conference, the Renaissance Church in Kansas City. The Pastor is Lia McIntosh, a 42 year old
African-American female pastor, and a recent graduate of St. Paul School of
Theology. The Renaissance is based in an urban setting in the Kansas City area
and it has a vision to reach younger and more diverse people in the area.
After reading all the information that the church had to
offer, I started to make a call to Lia. We interviewed on October 10, 2014, and
I had a list of questions for her; not only for her to answer but also to help
me maximize the results that I have been getting from my own church start,
Infinite Grace Fellowship in Baltimore. To kick things off, we both compared
our visions and our vision, though in separate parts of the country, were the
exact same thing.
We had some semantically different ways of wording our
visions, but they were kindred. Her vision was very inviting and basically she
wanted to create an atmosphere that is welcoming to her community. She then
told me it was very imperative that the people you invite to your new community
feel relaxed and “at ease”; not pushing or shoving God down their throats. With
this being said, she also stated that she dresses down intentionally so she’ll
be more approachable. In the African American community, dressing down is more
inviting than dressing up and it’s a conduit for non-judgment.
I compared her knowledge to my model and how I started
this year. This year I was promoted to be the senior Pastor of Infinite Grace
Fellowship in Baltimore. At the time of my appointment, I had no clue what I
was doing, so to me it felt like I was “parachute dropped” in as Pastor, even
though I’d been there a year prior as Campus Pastor. My predecessor didn’t give
me much training in Church Planting so I was absolutely befuddled and
discombobulated, so naturally I did what I thought was correct until I could
take a class.
In my comparison, Lia’s model was much more solid and
inviting than mine. I was more anxious and non-settling. This didn’t make good
for relationships and it surely wasn’t inviting. I did have the people that
were coming to Infinite Grace to feel at “home”, but they still felt uneasy, as
if I was not saying something. I started then to focus on building a better
team and making church attractional.
As we continued to interview, Lia told me of a book that
got her started and that was Zero to 80:
Innovative Ideas for Planting and Accelerating Church Growth, by Olu Brown.
I also told her I was reading the book because I was hungry for gaining souls
for Christ quickly however this process does take time and it has to be
strategized in a manner in which you don’t get burnt out. Lia kept telling me
if I’d read the book, I’d notice the word, “impact” is repeated numerously, so
that is exactly what you want to do.
During our conversation, she began to tell me that your
team is your most valuable asset. We both realized that the team that we put
together has to be in covenant relationship with one another. They have to have
a heart for Jesus and understand the mission, or “buy into the vision”. She then referred me to Olu Brown’s model in
the Appendix where it explains the DNA of the Team[1] .
Lia expressed that team effort is a staple for her growth
and even though she has a congregation of 150-200, she said it was a slow
start, but through hard work and effort, the team was the biggest reason why
she and her church was so successful. The Renaissance began its plant in July
of 2010 and was launched in October of 2011 with 250 members. Still using the
Olu Brown Model, the team had to focus on the mission/ mission field. She also
suggested me to do the same.
Again, we were kindred with our mission field. We both
agreed that since neither one of us lived in the communities we pastor, we have
to “live” in the community. I wasn’t quite sure what that meant but Lia said
that I needed to shop, and everything else in that community so the community
will know who you are. This is where I shared with her the book, Community: The Structure of Belonging by
Peter Block.
Block stated that we have to build an experience that the
community and its leaders can become alive in, so the social fabric of the
community consists of transformative things. Block also stated that small
groups would be that transformation and that should be the major focus once we
have established a team[2].
Lia’s advice to me was that I have to constantly put myself in the community no
matter what and that is transformative.
At this point of our conversation, we started to talk
about the ministries that we both have, which are similar. Collectively, there
is Men’s and Women’s Ministry, Youth and Young Adult Ministry, Children
Ministry, and Choirs. Some advice she had told me was that worship should be
the biggest part of your experience, no matter the atmosphere because it is the
first thing that new congregants, even old, will gravitate to. Lia told me that
the small group part of her ministry took about 6 months.
Throughout those 6 months, Lia had to cultivate
relationships. She did so at people’s homes, working out at the track, at
Panera Bread, Starbucks, and Bible study groups. She also took opportunities to
use the small group approach to do small group outreach. The biggest advice for
this part of our talk was that, you have to supply the community with something
they never had before. You can take this time to have a concert, a party, free
movies, talent shows. These are all opportunities in which you have an
opportunity to talk to people and have them check out your new church.
Once this was established, The Renaissance was ready for
action. Again, after months of small groups, she was able to assemble in the
new building. She said that the people of this generation are not looking for a
historical building, they are looking for a connection. Lia took this time,
with the conference, and found a space big enough for what she had in mind and
fashioned it appropriately. Lia then took her team, during the opening months,
and taught leadership training and development so that the church could
duplicate.
I realized
that my church omitted this step because we were still too busy in the
community that we forgot about having the basic knowledge of mentorship in the
event we’ve gained souls for Christ.
Lia thought it would be important somewhere into your 8th
or 9th month to engage in online services. I told her that we did,
however it wasn’t browsed the way we’d like it to be. She said the site should
be very “friendly” and easy to navigate.
To remain connectional, she has a Prayer Request Card sent to homes once
a week, for their new members. They receive a gift and a call within 24 hours
of the experience. One nugget of growth from this is that Lia didn’t have one
of the staff call the new member, it was the person seated next to them.
I thought that was absolutely wonderful because that
would draw my attention that they care about what goes on here. She said since
most people are always on their cell phones, that she would have someone text
them during the week to see what’s going on and phone calls from an automated
site called, www.voiceshot.com
for events. All of this is essential to your growth and you want to keep your
momentum going, Lia exclaimed.
Our conversation started to shift when I discussed the
financial aspect of Church Planting.
Basically she told me that, in her setting, she needs to make at least
2500.00 dollars to operate without losing money weekly, but 4000.00 is her
goal. She is partially funded by the conference but she said optimally that you
want to make your own money so you don’t have to rely on the Conference
Funding. It was very hard for her in the beginning because her congregants
didn’t know how to tithe so she had to teach it so the church could sustain
itself.
Another approach she used with tithing was having a
challenge for 3 months. This is a way that her congregants learned how to tithe
as well and urged me to do the same for the sake of my church. Beyond the
financial aspects, Lia stated that we should focus in on our future goals,
making sure that you’re goals align with the needs of the community always.
Once these goals are identified, include all businesses, schools, and
universities in your area because you’ll never know who knows who.
As we came to the end of our conversation, we talked
about self-care. Self-care was one of Lia’s pet peeves. Lia stated that her
first and favorite ministry is Home. She is married with 3 kids and loves to
workout. Like me, her Sabbath is Monday, Saturday she doesn’t take any calls
unless it’s of dire straits, and of course family day is Saturday.
In conclusion, I’d say that Lia had a very practical
approach to church planting. She didn’t do or try anything beyond the scope of
her practice nor did she waste time on things or method’s that didn’t work in
church planting. Obviously, she incorporated two excellent examples to aid her
in church growth in that of Olu Brown and Peter Block but what I really liked
about Lia is that she found herself/ style in the midst of comparing the
styles.
Her talk helped me to realize something about my church
plant, and that is some of my planting went south and I need to weed up the bad
things and throw some more seed down. In my current situation, my church start
declined down to 8 team members and 4 congregants. Unfortunately, the
congregants that have joined are not faithful. I had to make a command decision
and cancel church and get back to basics with small groups.
As of today, we have had 7 youth back in church, 10 women
in women’s bible study and 13 in Men’s Bible Study, so listening to Pastor
McIntosh was well worth it. In my own analysis, I will be more patient because
we do have 3 years to cultivate the relationships that the Conference is
looking for and the community. I am grateful for the time I spent with Lia
McIntosh and I will use her model and expertise to revive our current ministry and grow my new church, Infinite Grace, to new heights.
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