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April passed in a blur, like a small town at the side of the Interstate. What, that was April?

Looking back, here’s what happened (we think .

Crossroads Church Kansas City was invited to participate in a church planting “Vision Tour” organized by a friend and church planting strategist, Brad Briscoe. Crossroads was one of a half dozen church plants on the tour, and I enjoyed the chance to drive downtown and explain our vision to a bus-full of leaders and pastors from Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas. No doubt some good connections will come out of that time.

The Crossroads team pitched in at the Arts Incubator once again, helping the art studio building host an international conference with
over 400 attendees. We really enjoy our developing partnership with the Incubator–a non-profit dedicated to providing low-cost studio
space to aspiring artists. Serving there is giving us opportunities to build relationships and disarm some folks who are inclined to be
cynical toward the prospect of a new church.

We welcomed a new team member on board, Jonathan Dangers, a guy who discovered Crossroads a month after moving to KC for med school and is serious about getting involved. In addition, another church partner came on board to help Crossroads get off the ground–we’re looking
forward to collaborating with the Valley Fellowship team in the days ahead.

Finally, the saga of “the building” by downtown took a surprising new turn, as our loan materialized, appraisal came in within our target
range, and owners were cooperative. Over the last six months, this storyline has had more twists and turns than a bad suspense movie.
Now, God willing, it looks like we will close on June 1 and take possession a week later. We’re in the process of developing an action
plan for remodeling “the building” so that we can use it as a staging area for the church plant as we envision. We won’t exhale until the
last paper is signed…but we’re pumped about finally moving into the downtown neighborhood!

We’re currently raising some money for the down payment and construction costs, so don’t hesitate to contact us if you’d like to
make a tax-deductible contribution (or if you’d like to propose a good name for “the building”). A matching donor has stepped up, so anything
you can contribute will be multiplied. In the days ahead, we’ll also be looking for volunteer labor and donated materials as we work to
retrofit this place.

That’s a snapshot of what’s happened in the last month. Thanks for your prayers, and please continue to pray that the gospel will be evident in the lives of everyone on the Crossroads team as we build friendships openly and generously with the people in our lives.

Up until I officially pulled the trigger and began working to plant a church in downtown Kansas City in Fall 2008, my fund-raising experience was limited to asking my Dad for a weekly allowance, which I had successfully pulled off back in the ’80s.

Therefore, as I squared up to the task of funding a church’s operation, including my own salary, for the first several years of its existence, I didn’t have a lot to go on. Making things tougher was the reality that some of the guys I would have instinctively turned to for help were in the middle of raising funds for their own churches and projects, and were not jumping up and down with excitement at the prospect of helping a newbie learn the ropes.

As a result, when I set out to ask people to fund Crossroads Church, the tools of my trade were vision, determination, and some glaring misconceptions. One of those misconceptions stands head and shoulders above the rest. In a nutshell, it’s the mistake of equating SIZE with the ability or willingness to collaborate and share resources.

I want to preface this by saying that Crossroads Church Kansas City has a couple “large” churches (statistically, “large” is more than 200 members) supporting us. So by no means am I saying that large churches make bad partners in church planting or that large churches never partner with church plants.

However, as I’ve worked hard at fund-raising over the last several months, it’s no stretch to say that a majority of large churches I’ve connected with, including some very large churches (over 400 people) are not interested in partnering with a church plant in a significant way. I’m not saying this is a national pattern or universal trend, simply that in the KC area, this is the way it seems to be.

Now with very few exceptions, the leaders I’ve talked with, be they pastors of large or small churches, have been interested, encouraging, and supportive. In other words, there were only a couple dudes I wanted to punch—all the rest were stand-up guys. But the fact remains that at this point, 80% of Crossroads’ support comes from churches that are “small,” or under 200 people.

If someone had told me things would go this way six months ago, I don’t think I would have believed it.

However, this is reality. A couple of our partner churches are church plants themselves: LifeConnection (one year old) and Fellowship of Grace (two years). Both of these churches are sacrificially and creatively helping us get off the ground. Both run under 200 people. By contrast, pastors of churches running over 400 have explained to me that “we’re still getting established” and “we have a ways to go” before they could get involved in an outside plant.

So without making any big generalizations, it’s safe to say that in church planting as in dog fighting, it’s not the size of the church in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the church. Churches who are committed to the gospel and generosity will find a way to make it happen.

A church’s size or popularity is no indicator of its ability/willingness to put resources toward a new gospel endeavor. Sometimes larger churches are so financially committed to infrastructure that, ironically, most of their money and time is spent on self-maintenance. Sometimes there are already too many plates spinning. Sometimes the gospel focus and generosity just aren’t there.

Since I’m an NCAA basketball fan, I can’t help but think in hoops analogies. I like to think I’m getting a greater appreciation for Bill Self’s job. In church plant fund-raising, as in NCAA coaching, the blue chip recruits will always be out there. If they invested in your program for even a year, they would have a huge impact.

However, blue chip recruits are hard to court and slow to commit. They have a short attention span and a ton of invitations. That’s why it’s a mistake to exclusively go after big name players. Every successful coach recruits hard-working, blue-collar players as well. Not only will the 3-star recruit work harder and stay longer than the 5-star, he will also have a higher level of appreciation for the chance to contribute and win.

So there’s my two cents as a church planter and fund raiser. Go after a few of the power players, but put lots of your stock in the small and mid-size churches. They will take your risky, shoe-string adventure seriously, since they have been there themselves and maybe still are. They will relish the fact that you are inviting them to collaborate even though they are not the Duke or Kansas of churches. And frequently, they will lend the concentration and sweat equity that any church plant needs to take root.

Here’s an excerpt from an excellent article by Scott Thomas. As he points out, one reason that new churches have been planted so infrequently in the last decade is that the concept of a “church planter” or “apostle” has fallen on hard times. Therefore, dudes who are well-suited to plant churches can languish in square-peg-round-hole roles…and some men are unfortunately encouraged to go plant a church when their personalities and giftings are not a good match for the beating that they will inevitably take. Excerpt:

A lot of churches do not have a theologically-based vision for church planting and lack insight into what a church planter looks like. Other churches that are interested in church planting have an intuitive sense of a church planter prospect but have not articulated it and thus may not recognize a man that would make a great church planter. Every church leader should be able to spot a church planter and then send him to plant as soon as he is ready. The problem I am seeing is that we are so desperate for good men that we are not sending them into the field. We take warriors and make them into administrative clerks.

Great stuff from Tim Chester, co-author of my overall favorite book from 2008, Total Church. He writes:

Put together A humble confidence in God’s sovereignty and A clear vision for mission and what have you got? A liberating culture in the church.

– Because you’re not confined by a plan, people are free to respond to opportunities.

– Because you have a clear vision, people know how to response to opportunities.

He goes on to explain the “three strands” of gospel mission that they champion at The Crowded House, and concludes, “Leadership is about…1. Creating and ethos of mission. 2. Organizing the chaos that results!”

Can’t agree more. As we move forward in Kansas City, we’re looking at mission and leadership through the same lens.

March Madness tends to be a big deal around here, so I’m making a point of writing this update before the first round games begin and everyone starts screaming at the TV.

As I continue talking with folks about the Crossroads Church plant, I’ve started explaining this phase of the church plant in terms of three major puzzle pieces we are fitting together…or three plates we are spinning…or three balls we are juggling. You get the idea.

1. Team building. We’ve continued to meet a couple times a week with our launch team. One of those is a small group time where we get together for food, prayer, planning, and Bible. The other meeting is men and women separately, as we pursue accountability, leadership development, and strong relationships. We were excited to see another young couple, Norman and Jill Gordon, come on board with us this month.

2. Church partnerships. Something we long to see happen is Jesus-loving churches working in tandem to pull this church plant off. Crossroads Church has some more obvious needs right now, but we’re convinced that churches that take the leap of faith and get involved downtown will provide their people with more vision and opportunities to be on mission and invest their lives. On this front, we were pumped to see another local church, Antioch Bible Baptist Church, come online this month and start supporting Crossroads financially and in other ways.

3. Networking downtown. We’ve continued to find great opportunities to invest time downtown, meeting some of the people who are already working hard to promote the welfare of the city. Our goal is to come alongside folks in the galleries, nonprofits, and community associations, and discover how we can start working with them to bless the downtown area. On that front, we have volunteer opportunities coming up with the Communications Committee in the Crossroads Community Association, and a big work day at the Arts Incubator—a nonprofit that houses dozens of local artists. With each conversation and every day that goes by, we get more and better ideas of how we can start serving downtown NOW, rubbing shoulders with residents. It is still early going, but we’re noticing that our efforts to network, explore, and invest have begun to disarm some of the skepticism people downtown have toward church in general.

That’s a good overview of what’s going on. It seems like every day there is a new idea, opportunity, or unexpected twist. We’re always happy to grab coffee and talk about the divine “genius in the details.”

I know many of you have been praying about the building deal we’ve been negotiating on the West Side. Here’s the latest. We had reached an understanding with the owners, and actually drafted a contract that worked for both parties. However, yesterday we learned that lenders are currently requiring 25% down on multi-unit buildings, of which this building is one. In light of this, we seem to have hit a wall, since we have nowhere near that kind of ready money (we’re a mere $50,000 short). God is making it very plain that 1) he has another home and church “staging area” for us, or 2) he is going to pull this off in a way that will reserve every ounce of glory for himself.

The up-and-down nature of this process has been tough. But we are convinced that God has the right place for us in mind—whether it is this place or not. And when the time comes, he will not gesture vaguely in the general direction of some neighborhood. Rather, he will open the front door, take us by the shoulders, and steer us inside.

As always, we covet your prayers. Let us know if we can pray for you, and don’t forget to fill out an NCAA Tourney bracket!